Hi all, I''m having a few problems with declaring dynamic 3d arrays of pointers to a class in C++. What I have is a class and within this class is a pointer to a 3d array (m_pGrid), the type of this point is another class. What I need is a way of declaring a 3d array of these pointers from 3 dimensions. I would like to be able to index the array with something like, m_pGrid[x][y][z].classvariblesorfunctions However I seem inable to do this. Any ideas on how I can declare this sort of array. Thanks in advance You cannot see what does not want to be seen.

In your constructor, write this:

m_pGrid = new Grid[MAX_X][MAX_Y][MAX_Z];

If I understand your problem correctly I don''t think it is possible to do such a thing. However I could be wrong. After a little testing I found that this is a possible work-around:

yourclass *temp = m_pGrid[x][y][z]; // may have to resort to ptr arithmetic here.

temp->classvariablesorfunctions;

Ravyne, NYN Interactive Entertainment
[My Site][My School][My Group]

If you want to do it with the built in types, without use of vectors or linked lists, this is the correct syntax.

Classname ***pointer = new Classname**[NUM_FIRST_DIMENSION];for(int i = 0; i < NUM_SECOND_DIMENSION; i++){    pointer[i] = new Classname*[NUM_SECOND_DIMENSION];    for(int j = 0; j < NUM_THIRD_DIMENSION; j++)        pointer[i][j] = new Classname[NUM_THIRD_DIMENSION];}

Now, it would be much easier to create the same setup with a vector, using the following syntax

#include <vector>using namespace std;vector<vector<vector<Classname> > > pointer;// Now all elements can be accessed by simple// pointer[j][k].classmethod() syntax<br></font><br></pre><!–ENDSCRIPT–><br><br>Hope it helps.   

I found it much easier to use a single dimension array instead of making all of those calls to new and having to make sure I delete it in the right order.

to create it:

int *m_pGrid;m_pGrid = new int[width*height*layers];  

and to access it you use a member functions:

void setvalue( int x, int y, int layer, int value ){    m_pGrid[x+(y*width)+(layer*width*height)] = value;}int getvalue( int x, int y, int layer ){    return m_pGrid[x+(y*width)+(layer*width*height)];}  

and to delete it:

void DestroyGrid(){    delete [] m_pGrid;    m_pGrid = NULL;}  

Now thats just pseudo code but I hope it conveys the idea. I did a lot of reading on multi dimensional arrays a while back and I found that C++ doesn't truly support multidimensional arrays and it ends up doing this kind of math anyway. I prefer this way because it allocates a single chunk of memory at once with one call to new and can be deleted in one call to delete.

[edit]
damn, sorry, forgot it was using pointers. It isn't much different with pointers but if you are still having trouble, e-mail me and I will send you my 3darray class to look at.

[edited by - evillive2 on August 11, 2003 11:16:19 AM]

Thanks everybody who has posted, all the posts were a great help. I tested many ways of creating the arrays based upon the suggestions and have eventually settled on using the new operator in the code

// Create the 3d grid array
m_pGrid = new cBlock**[m_sizeX];
for(int i = 0; i < m_sizeX; ++i)
{
m_pGrid = new cBlock*[20];
for(int j = 0; j < 20; ++j)
{
m_pGrid[j] = new cBlock[m_sizeY];<br> }<br>}<br><br> </i>