C++ std::vector Matrices Using Vectors
Example
Vectors can be used as a 2D matrix by defining them as a vector of vectors.
A matrix with 3 rows and 4 columns with each cell initialised as 0 can be defined as:
std::vector<std::vector<int> > matrix(3, std::vector<int>(4));
C++11
The syntax for initializing them using initialiser lists or otherwise are similar to that of a normal vector.
std::vector<std::vector<int>> matrix = { {0,1,2,3},
{4,5,6,7},
{8,9,10,11}
};
Values in such a vector can be accessed similar to a 2D array
int var = matrix[0][2];
Iterating over the entire matrix is similar to that of a normal vector but with an extra dimension.
for(int i = 0; i < 3; ++i)
{
for(int j = 0; j < 4; ++j)
{
std::cout << matrix[i][j] << std::endl;
}
}
C++11
for(auto& row: matrix)
{
for(auto& col : row)
{
std::cout << col << std::endl;
}
}
A vector of vectors is a convenient way to represent a matrix but it's not the most efficient: individual vectors are scattered around memory and the data structure isn't cache friendly.
Also, in a proper matrix, the length of every row must be the same (this isn't the case for a vector of vectors). The additional flexibility can be a source of errors.
