I've written a library at GitHub/rahogaboom/daa that does dynamic array allocation in ptr to ptr ... style that is very simple to use(only two routines), header file only, can allocate an unlimited number of dimensions with subscripts for each dimension starting at an arbitrary number e.g. 0, 1, -5 etc, can allocate anything you can take sizeof() and allocates all in one contiguous block(stack, heap) for easy freeing. I'm aware of the Boost.MultiArray library, however, I think daa has some advantages. Specifically, a. each dimension has it's own starting subscript b. it's relative simplicity(2 routines) c. it's longevity - 30 years and two articles d. also can be used in a C only environment. Following is the points noted in the GitHub README.md: |Library: daa.hpp Dynamic Array Allocator - C++ header file only library - ptr to ptr to ... style arbitrary N dimensional array allocator of anything you can take sizeof() - arbitrary starting subscript(0, 1, -10, ...) for each separate dimension - Note: for each array dimension the starting subscript and dimension size determine the valid subscripts for that dimension - any index outside that range is invalid and will give unpredictable results - allocates anything of any type(double, int, long, struct, ...) - one contiguous block allocation of memory for all ptr's and data(locality of reference and easy free()) - array or slices of array can be passed to subroutines to any depth, modified there, and be seen at all levels - simple library, two routines(das()(calculate space needed) and daa()(allocate ptr to ptr ... array)) - no library dependencies(except standard header files) - initialization pointer argument set to instance of initialized type or NULL for no initialization - implemented by a recursive routine(ptr_init()) which calls two other different recursive routines(off() and doff()) - see article in Embedded Systems Programming, Dec. 2000, "Flexible Dynamic Array Allocation"(included) - see article in The C Users Journal, Nov. 1990. "A Flexible Dynamic Array Allocator"(included) - 18 verification tests that show code usage examples, see daa_test.cpp - see cut/paste Examples section and API(das(), daa()) section below - a daa-compile.tar file is provided with a non-header compiled(clang, clang++, gcc, g++) version - for an excellent reference on this type of array(ptr to ptr to ...) access see Numerical Recipes in C, Press, Flannery, Teukolsky, and Vettering, Cambridge University Press, 1992, pg. 20-23. Ch. 1 Preliminaries -> 1.2 Some C Conventions for Scientific Computing -> Matrices and Two-Dimensional Arrays. From the above reference read: 'Here is our bottom line: We avoid the fixed-size two-dimensional arrays of C as being unsuitable data structures for representing matrices in scientific computing. We adopt instead the convention “pointer to array of pointers,” with the array elements pointing to the first element in the rows of each matrix.' - this file is the entire documentation needed to use the library - Author: Richard Hogaboom, richard.hogaboom@gmail.com| | Usage: - das() - find size necessary malloc()(or whatever memory allocation routine) - allocate memory daa() - populate allocated memory - allocate auto stack or static area storage e.g. unsigned char mem[SIZE] das() - determine if array will fit in mem[] daa() - populate allocated memory | |Example:| | int err_code = 0; int asize = 0; char *mem_ptr; unsigned int d[4] = {3, 5, 4, 2}; /* dimensions */ int st[4] = {-1, -5, 10, 0}; /* starting subscripts */ double ****array = NULL; /* array pointer */ asize = das(sizeof(double), 4, d, &err_code); mem_ptr = (char *)malloc(asize); array = (double ****) daa(sizeof(double), 4, d, st, &err_code, mem_ptr, NULL);| | double d = array[-1][-5][10][0];| -- Richard A Hogaboom 16 Alprilla Farm Road Hopkinton, MA 01748-1922 richard.hogaboom@gmail.com www.linkedin.com/in/richardhogaboom/ www.github.com/rahogaboom M508-330-3775