What is the easiest way to initialize a std::vecto

Question

I can create an array and initialize it like this:

int a[] = {10, 20, 30};

How do I create a std::vector and initialize it similarly elegant?

The best way I know is:

std::vector<int> ints;

ints.push_back(10);
ints.push_back(20);
ints.push_back(30);

Is there a better way?

Answer 1

Starting with:

int a[] = {10, 20, 30}; //i'm assuming a is just a placeholder

If you don't have a C++11 compiler and you don't want to use boost:

const int a[] = {10, 20, 30};
const std::vector<int> ints(a,a+sizeof(a)/sizeof(int)); //make it const if you can

If you don't have a C++11 compiler and can use boost:

#include <boost/assign.hpp>
const std::vector<int> ints = boost::assign::list_of(10)(20)(30);

If you do have a C++11 compiler:

const std::vector<int> ints = {10,20,30};

Answer 2

// Before C++11
// I used following methods:

// 1.
int A[] = {10, 20, 30};                              // original array A

unsigned sizeOfA = sizeof(A)/sizeof(A[0]);           // calculate the number of elements

                                                     // declare vector vArrayA,
std::vector<int> vArrayA(sizeOfA);                   // make room for all
                                                     // array A integers
                                                     // and initialize them to 0 

for(unsigned i=0; i<sizeOfA; i++)
    vArrayA[i] = A[i];                               // initialize vector vArrayA


//2.
int B[] = {40, 50, 60, 70};                          // original array B

std::vector<int> vArrayB;                            // declare vector vArrayB
for (unsigned i=0; i<sizeof(B)/sizeof(B[0]); i++)
    vArrayB.push_back(B[i]);                         // initialize vArrayB

//3.
int C[] = {1, 2, 3, 4};                              // original array C

std::vector<int> vArrayC;                            // create an empty vector vArrayC
vArrayC.resize(sizeof(C)/sizeof(C[0]));              // enlarging the number of 
                                                     // contained elements
for (unsigned i=0; i<sizeof(C)/sizeof(C[0]); i++)
     vArrayC.at(i) = C[i];                           // initialize vArrayC


// A Note:
// Above methods will work well for complex arrays
// with structures as its elements.

Answer 3

I build my own solution using va_arg. This solution is C98 compliant.

#include <cstdarg>
#include <iostream>
#include <vector>

template <typename T>
std::vector<T> initVector (int len, ...)
{
  std::vector<T> v;
  va_list vl;
  va_start(vl, len);
  for (int i = 0; i < len; ++i)
    v.push_back(va_arg(vl, T));
  va_end(vl);
  return v;
}

int main ()
{
  std::vector<int> v = initVector<int> (7,702,422,631,834,892,104,772);
  for (std::vector<int>::const_iterator it = v.begin() ; it != v.end(); ++it)
    std::cout << *it << std::endl;
  return 0;
}

Demo

Answer 4

There are a lot of good answers here, but since I independently arrived at my own before reading this, I figured I'd toss mine up here anyway...

Here's a method that I'm using for this which will work universally across compilers and platforms:

Create a struct or class as a container for your collection of objects. Define an operator overload function for <<.

class MyObject;

struct MyObjectList
{
    std::list<MyObject> objects;
    MyObjectList& operator<<( const MyObject o )
    { 
        objects.push_back( o );
        return *this; 
    }
};

You can create functions which take your struct as a parameter, e.g.:

someFunc( MyObjectList &objects );

Then, you can call that function, like this:

someFunc( MyObjectList() << MyObject(1) <<  MyObject(2) <<  MyObject(3) );

That way, you can build and pass a dynamically sized collection of objects to a function in one single clean line!

Answer 5

For vector initialisation -

vector<int> v = {10,20,30}

can be done if you have c++11 compiler.

Else, you can have an array of the data and then use a for loop.

int array[] = {10,20,30}
for(int i=0; i<sizeof(array); i++)
     v.push_back(array[i]);

Apart from these, there are various other ways described above using some code. In my opinion, these ways are easy to remember and quick to write.

Answer 6

In C++11:

#include <vector>
using std::vector;
...
vector<int> vec1 { 10, 20, 30 };
// or
vector<int> vec2 = { 10, 20, 30 };

Using boost list_of:

#include <vector>
#include <boost/assign/list_of.hpp>
using std::vector;
...
vector<int> vec = boost::assign::list_of(10)(20)(30);

Using boost assign:

#include <vector>
#include <boost/assign/std/vector.hpp>
using std::vector;
...
vector<int> vec;
vec += 10, 20, 30;

Conventional STL:

#include <vector>
using std::vector;
...
static const int arr[] = {10,20,30};
vector<int> vec (arr, arr + sizeof(arr) / sizeof(arr[0]) );

Conventional STL with generic macros:

#include <vector>
#define ARRAY_SIZE(ar) (sizeof(ar) / sizeof(ar[0])
#define ARRAY_END(ar) (ar + ARRAY_SIZE(ar))
using std::vector;
...
static const int arr[] = {10,20,30};
vector<int> vec (arr, ARRAY_END(arr));

Conventional STL with a vector initializer macro:

#include <vector>
#define INIT_FROM_ARRAY(ar) (ar, ar + sizeof(ar) / sizeof(ar[0])
using std::vector;
...
static const int arr[] = {10,20,30};
vector<int> vec INIT_FROM_ARRAY(arr);