initialize a const array in a class initializer in

Question

I have the following class in C++:

class a {
    const int b[2];
    // other stuff follows

    // and here's the constructor
    a(void);
}

The question is, how do I initialize b in the initialization list, given that I can't initialize it inside the body of the function of the constructor, because b is const?

This doesn't work:

a::a(void) : 
    b([2,3])
{
     // other initialization stuff
}

Edit: The case in point is when I can have different values for b for different instances, but the values are known to be constant for the lifetime of the instance.

Answer 1

Where I've a constant array, it's always been done as static. If you can accept that, this code should compile and run.

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

class a {
        static const int b[2];
public:
        a(void) {
                for(int i = 0; i < 2; i++) {
                        printf("b[%d] = [%d]\n", i, b[i]);
                }
        }
};

const int a::b[2] = { 4, 2 };

int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
        a foo;
        return 0;
}

Answer 2

You can't do that from the initialization list,

Have a look at this:

http://www.cprogramming.com/tutorial/initialization-lists-c++.html

:)

Answer 3

With C++11 the answer to this question has now changed and you can in fact do:

struct a {
    const int b[2];
    // other bits follow

    // and here's the constructor
    a();
};

a::a() :
    b{2,3}
{
     // other constructor work
}

int main() {
 a a;
}

Answer 4

std::vector uses the heap. Geez, what a waste that would be just for the sake of a const sanity-check. The point of std::vector is dynamic growth at run-time, not any old syntax checking that should be done at compile-time. If you're not going to grow then create a class to wrap a normal array.

#include <stdio.h>


template <class Type, size_t MaxLength>
class ConstFixedSizeArrayFiller {
private:
    size_t length;

public:
    ConstFixedSizeArrayFiller() : length(0) {
    }

    virtual ~ConstFixedSizeArrayFiller() {
    }

    virtual void Fill(Type *array) = 0;

protected:
    void add_element(Type *array, const Type & element)
    {
        if(length >= MaxLength) {
            // todo: throw more appropriate out-of-bounds exception
            throw 0;
        }
        array[length] = element;
        length++;
    }
};


template <class Type, size_t Length>
class ConstFixedSizeArray {
private:
    Type array[Length];

public:
    explicit ConstFixedSizeArray(
        ConstFixedSizeArrayFiller<Type, Length> & filler
    ) {
        filler.Fill(array);
    }

    const Type *Array() const {
        return array;
    }

    size_t ArrayLength() const {
        return Length;
    }
};


class a {
private:
    class b_filler : public ConstFixedSizeArrayFiller<int, 2> {
    public:
        virtual ~b_filler() {
        }

        virtual void Fill(int *array) {
            add_element(array, 87);
            add_element(array, 96);
        }
    };

    const ConstFixedSizeArray<int, 2> b;

public:
    a(void) : b(b_filler()) {
    }

    void print_items() {
        size_t i;
        for(i = 0; i < b.ArrayLength(); i++)
        {
            printf("%d\n", b.Array()[i]);
        }
    }
};


int main()
{
    a x;
    x.print_items();
    return 0;
}

ConstFixedSizeArrayFiller and ConstFixedSizeArray are reusable.

The first allows run-time bounds checking while initializing the array (same as a vector might), which can later become const after this initialization.

The second allows the array to be allocated inside another object, which could be on the heap or simply the stack if that's where the object is. There's no waste of time allocating from the heap. It also performs compile-time const checking on the array.

b_filler is a tiny private class to provide the initialization values. The size of the array is checked at compile-time with the template arguments, so there's no chance of going out of bounds.

I'm sure there are more exotic ways to modify this. This is an initial stab. I think you can pretty much make up for any of the compiler's shortcoming with classes.

Answer 5

It is not possible in the current standard. I believe you'll be able to do this in C++0x using initializer lists (see A Brief Look at C++0x, by Bjarne Stroustrup, for more information about initializer lists and other nice C++0x features).

Answer 6

A solution without using the heap with std::vector is to use boost::array, though you can't initialize array members directly in the constructor.

#include <boost/array.hpp>

const boost::array<int, 2> aa={ { 2, 3} };

class A {
    const boost::array<int, 2> b;
    A():b(aa){};
};