Thread: arrays and templates/classes

I am trying to whip out a template program, and the compiler yells at me when i try to declare the contents of an array inside the public/private areas of the class:

Code:

template <class T>
class myclass
{
	public:
		T a[7];
		void showarray(T);
	private:	
		int numarray[]={3,5,9,2,1};
		char charray[]={'a','e','i','o','u'};
		string starray[]={"Mon","Tue","Wed","Thu","Fri","Sat","Sun"};

it has a problem with the '{' character of each array. but if i got rid of the content declaration {3,5,9,2,1} then it accepted the array. i need the arrays to be passed to the a[7] array (eventually).

i tried initializing the array in the main() but it wouldnt pass the values.

is there a better way to get the values into the a[7] array?

private member cann't permitted be initialized in class!

You're drinking too much java in the morning...

You can't have zero-sized arrays inside a class. You can only have explicit initializers for class members within a constructor initialization list. But even then you can't have explicit initializers for member arrays.
What that means is, you can't do the following:

Code:

class A
{
    char a1[]; // <-- "zero-sized" array, ERROR

public:
    A() : a1('a','b') {} // <-- explicit initializers for member array, ERROR
};

So even if you gave a1 a size of 2, there is no syntax in C++ for explicit member array initialization.
What you can do is the following:

Code:

class myclass
{
    int numarray[5];
    
public:
    myclass()
    {
        numarray[0] = 3;
        numarray[1] = 5;
        numarray[2] = 9;
        numarray[3] = 2;
        numarray[4] = 1;
    }
};

I would also suggest that if your array data is never modified, then make it static and const. "static" members of a class are "global" for all instances of that class. And "const" members can not be modified (of course). The really nice thing about static member arrays is that you can have explicit initialization of the array without specifying its size (hurray).
Here's the syntax for doing that with templates:

Code:

template <class T>
class myclass
{
    T t;
    static int numarray[];
};

template<class T>
int myclass<T>::numarray[] = {3,5,9,2,1};

gg