Vector

The C++ standard library offers the programmer plenty of generic data structures and algorithms that are ready for use. The programmer can concentrate on the essential and does not need to invent the wheel all over again. Just like string is dynamic and easier to use than static character strings, there is a dynamic data structure corresponding to static arrays. That is vector. vector is a part of the C++ standard library. The problems with arrays in C++:

• They are static, i.e. the amount of elements cannot be changed without compiling the program again
• An array cannot be copied into another away with the = operator
• An array cannot be initialized with an another array
• There is no way of knowing the current amount of actual elements without keeping constant score of the situation

vector makes all of the above possible and has a lot of other useful features. In practice, vector is generic, dynamic array.

In order to be able to use vector the library vector must be taken into use.

Any type of data can be put into a vector. All elements must be of the same type (just like with static arrays). vector is defined with <> notation:

vector< element_type > variable_name;

for example:

vector< int > numbers;
vector< string > names;

The vector is empty at initialization if no initial values are given:

vector< double > temperatures1( 5, 20.1 );
vector< double > temperatures2( 3 );
vector< double > temperatures3( temperatures2 );

now there are five elements in the vector temperatures1 with the value 20.1, all three elements in the vector temperatures2 have been initialized to 0.0 and the temperatures3 has the same contents as temperatures2.

Just like string, vector has its own functions.

vector <int> numbers(2,3);
//The elements in numbers are (3 3)
numbers.clear();
//numbers now empty
numbers.push_back(4);
numbers.push_back(10);
//Now the elements are (4 10)
numbers.push_back( numbers[1] );
//(4 10 10)
numbers.push_back( numbers.at( 0 ) );
//(4 10 10 4)
numbers.pop_back();
//(4 10 10)

// printing the contents
if( !numbers.empty() )
{
    unsigned int i;
    for( i = 0; i < numbers.size(); ++i )
    {
        cout << "numbers are: " << numbers[ i ] << " ";
    }
    cout << endl;
}

A vector can be assigned another vector of the same type with the = operator. Two vectors of the same type can be compared with ==, !=, <, >, <= and >= operators.

vector can be passed both as a value and a reference parameter like any ordinary variable:

vector<type> valueparam
vector<type>& referenceparam

In practice vector should always be passed as a reference parameter due to efficiency issues.

Reference: cplusplus, codesource, cppreference

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