Thread: Passing Class Array through Fucntion

  1. #1
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    Passing Class Array through Fucntion

    I made a class called Box, which has a size of 100 . Then I made an array of 6 "Boxes" , now, the size if 600. However, when I pass this array into a function, and tries to use sizeof in the function, the size of the whole array becomes 4, how come?
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  2. #2
    Code Goddess Prelude's Avatar
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    Because C++ passes an array as a pointer to the first element. When you use sizeof, you're getting the size of a pointer, not an array. One solution is to pass the size as well:
    Code:
    void f ( Box array[], size_t size );
    Or encapsulate the array ina class or structure and pass a reference to that:
    Code:
    struct BoxArray {
      Box array[SIZE];
      size_t size;
    };
    
    void f ( BoxArray& ba );
    Or even pass a reference to the array. But then you have size limitations that you must adhere to:
    Code:
    void f ( Box (&array)[10] );
    Last edited by Prelude; 03-07-2004 at 07:19 PM.
    My best code is written with the delete key.

  3. #3
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    Originally posted by Prelude
    Because C++ passes an array as a pointer to the first element. When you use sizeof, you're getting the size of a pointer, not an array. One solution is to pass the size as well:
    Code:
    void f ( Box array[], size_t size );
    Or encapsulate the array ina class or structure and pass a reference to that:
    Code:
    struct BoxArray {
      Box array[SIZE];
      size_t size;
    };
    
    void f ( BoxArray& ba );
    Or any of a number of other ways. But passing the size along with the array is the simplest.
    ahh, okay, thx.
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