File I/O problem for dynamically allocated struct array

I'm having trouble reading and writing a dynamically allocated array of structs to a file. I think it has to do with the way I'm allocating memory, because if I statically allocate them (i.e. vector vectout[3]) then it seems to work better, but I still get a debug assertion error with something about an invalid heap.

With the code the way it is displayed below, the file it outputs has random numbers in it, and I get a debug assertion error about an invalid block type.

Note: this is just some test code...in the real code, I'm reading the number of vectors from a header, dynamically allocating an array, and then reading them all into the array.

Code:

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#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>
using namespace std;

struct vector
{
        float x, y, z;
};

int main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
        vector *vectout;
        vector *vectin;

        vectout = new vector[3];
        vectin = new vector[3];

        vectout[0].x = 1.0f; vectout[0].y = 11.0f; vectout[0].z = 111.0f;
        vectout[1].x = 2.0f; vectout[1].y = 22.0f; vectout[1].z = 222.0f;
        vectout[2].x = 3.0f; vectout[2].y = 33.0f; vectout[2].z = 333.0f;

        for (int i = 0; i < 3; i++)
        {
                cout << "vectout[" << i << "] x: "
                        << vectout[i].x << " y: "
                        << vectout[i].y << " z: "
                        << vectout[i].z << endl;
        }

        ofstream out;
        out.open("vector.dat", ios::out | ios::binary);
        out.write((char *) &vectout, sizeof(vector) * 3);       
        out.close();

        ifstream in;
        in.open("vector.dat", ios::in | ios::binary);
        in.read((char *) &vectin, sizeof(vector) * 3);
        in.close();

        for (int i = 0; i < 3; i++)
        {
                cout << "vectin[" << i << "] x: "
                        << vectin[i].x << " y: "
                        << vectin[i].y << " z: "
                        << vectin[i].z << endl;
        }

        delete [] vectin;
        delete [] vectout;

        return 0;
}

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Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

Code:

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        out.write((char *) &vectout, sizeof(vector) * 3);

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Remove & before vectout. same with vectin.

You are creating these dynamically which means that the containers are pointers. Thus using the & is a no no. Since they are already pointers, their name alone will point to the starting address of the object, thus you do not need the & on dynamically created objects.

Man, I feel stupid....I should have known that. That's what I get for using my C++ book's example that used a single struct. Much much appreciated! Thanks.