]> git.saurik.com Git - wxWidgets.git/blob - docs/latex/wx/array.tex
wxRichTextAttr does not exist anymore - document instead wxTextAttr
[wxWidgets.git] / docs / latex / wx / array.tex
1 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
2 %% Name: array.tex
3 %% Purpose: wxArray
4 %% Author: wxWidgets Team
5 %% Modified by:
6 %% Created:
7 %% RCS-ID: $Id$
8 %% Copyright: (c) wxWidgets Team
9 %% License: wxWindows license
10 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
11
12 \section{\class{wxArray<T>}}\label{wxarray}
13
14 This section describes the so called {\it dynamic arrays}. This is a C
15 array-like type safe data structure i.e. the member access time is constant (and not
16 linear according to the number of container elements as for linked lists). However, these
17 arrays are dynamic in the sense that they will automatically allocate more
18 memory if there is not enough of it for adding a new element. They also perform
19 range checking on the index values but in debug mode only, so please be sure to
20 compile your application in debug mode to use it (see \helpref{debugging overview}{debuggingoverview} for
21 details). So, unlike the arrays in some other
22 languages, attempt to access an element beyond the arrays bound doesn't
23 automatically expand the array but provokes an assertion failure instead in
24 debug build and does nothing (except possibly crashing your program) in the
25 release build.
26
27 The array classes were designed to be reasonably efficient, both in terms of
28 run-time speed and memory consumption and the executable size. The speed of
29 array item access is, of course, constant (independent of the number of elements)
30 making them much more efficient than linked lists (\helpref{wxList}{wxlist}).
31 Adding items to the arrays is also implemented in more or less constant time -
32 but the price is preallocating the memory in advance. In the \helpref{memory management}{wxarraymemorymanagement} section
33 you may find some useful hints about optimizing wxArray memory usage. As for executable size, all
34 wxArray functions are inline, so they do not take {\it any space at all}.
35
36 wxWidgets has three different kinds of array. All of them derive from
37 wxBaseArray class which works with untyped data and can not be used directly.
38 The standard macros WX\_DEFINE\_ARRAY(), WX\_DEFINE\_SORTED\_ARRAY() and
39 WX\_DEFINE\_OBJARRAY() are used to define a new class deriving from it. The
40 classes declared will be called in this documentation wxArray, wxSortedArray and
41 wxObjArray but you should keep in mind that no classes with such names actually
42 exist, each time you use one of WX\_DEFINE\_XXXARRAY macro you define a class
43 with a new name. In fact, these names are "template" names and each usage of one
44 of the macros mentioned above creates a template specialization for the given
45 element type.
46
47 wxArray is suitable for storing integer types and pointers which it does not
48 treat as objects in any way, i.e. the element pointed to by the pointer is not
49 deleted when the element is removed from the array. It should be noted that
50 all of wxArray's functions are inline, so it costs strictly nothing to define as
51 many array types as you want (either in terms of the executable size or the
52 speed) as long as at least one of them is defined and this is always the case
53 because wxArrays are used by wxWidgets internally. This class has one serious
54 limitation: it can only be used for storing integral types (bool, char, short,
55 int, long and their unsigned variants) or pointers (of any kind). An attempt
56 to use with objects of sizeof() greater than sizeof(long) will provoke a
57 runtime assertion failure, however declaring a wxArray of floats will not (on
58 the machines where sizeof(float) <= sizeof(long)), yet it will {\bf not} work,
59 please use wxObjArray for storing floats and doubles.
60
61 wxSortedArray is a wxArray variant which should be used when searching in the
62 array is a frequently used operation. It requires you to define an additional
63 function for comparing two elements of the array element type and always stores
64 its items in the sorted order (according to this function). Thus, it is
65 \helpref{Index()}{wxarrayindex} function execution time is $O(log(N))$ instead of
66 $O(N)$ for the usual arrays but the \helpref{Add()}{wxarrayadd} method is
67 slower: it is $O(log(N))$ instead of constant time (neglecting time spent in
68 memory allocation routine). However, in a usual situation elements are added to
69 an array much less often than searched inside it, so wxSortedArray may lead to
70 huge performance improvements compared to wxArray. Finally, it should be
71 noticed that, as wxArray, wxSortedArray can be only used for storing integral
72 types or pointers.
73
74 wxObjArray class treats its elements like "objects". It may delete them when
75 they are removed from the array (invoking the correct destructor) and copies
76 them using the objects copy constructor. In order to implement this behaviour
77 the definition of the wxObjArray arrays is split in two parts: first, you should
78 declare the new wxObjArray class using WX\_DECLARE\_OBJARRAY() macro and then
79 you must include the file defining the implementation of template type:
80 <wx/arrimpl.cpp> and define the array class with WX\_DEFINE\_OBJARRAY() macro
81 from a point where the full (as opposed to `forward') declaration of the array
82 elements class is in scope. As it probably sounds very complicated here is an
83 example:
84
85 \begin{verbatim}
86 #include <wx/dynarray.h>
87
88 // we must forward declare the array because it is used inside the class
89 // declaration
90 class MyDirectory;
91 class MyFile;
92
93 // this defines two new types: ArrayOfDirectories and ArrayOfFiles which can be
94 // now used as shown below
95 WX_DECLARE_OBJARRAY(MyDirectory, ArrayOfDirectories);
96 WX_DECLARE_OBJARRAY(MyFile, ArrayOfFiles);
97
98 class MyDirectory
99 {
100 ...
101 ArrayOfDirectories m_subdirectories; // all subdirectories
102 ArrayOfFiles m_files; // all files in this directory
103 };
104
105 ...
106
107 // now that we have MyDirectory declaration in scope we may finish the
108 // definition of ArrayOfDirectories -- note that this expands into some C++
109 // code and so should only be compiled once (i.e., don't put this in the
110 // header, but into a source file or you will get linking errors)
111 #include <wx/arrimpl.cpp> // this is a magic incantation which must be done!
112 WX_DEFINE_OBJARRAY(ArrayOfDirectories);
113
114 // that's all!
115 \end{verbatim}
116
117 It is not as elegant as writing
118
119 \begin{verbatim}
120 typedef std::vector<MyDirectory> ArrayOfDirectories;
121 \end{verbatim}
122
123 but is not that complicated and allows the code to be compiled with any, however
124 dumb, C++ compiler in the world.
125
126 Things are much simpler for wxArray and wxSortedArray however: it is enough
127 just to write
128
129 \begin{verbatim}
130 WX_DEFINE_ARRAY_INT(int, ArrayOfInts);
131 WX_DEFINE_SORTED_ARRAY_INT(int, ArrayOfSortedInts);
132 \end{verbatim}
133
134 i.e. there is only one {\tt DEFINE} macro and no need for separate
135 {\tt DECLARE} one. For the arrays of the primitive types, the macros
136 {\tt WX\_DEFINE\_ARRAY\_CHAR/SHORT/INT/SIZE\_T/LONG/DOUBLE} should be used
137 depending on the sizeof of the values (notice that storing values of smaller
138 type, e.g. shorts, in an array of larger one, e.g. {\tt ARRAY\_INT}, does
139 \emph{not} work on all architectures!).
140
141
142 \wxheading{See also}
143
144 \helpref{Container classes overview}{wxcontaineroverview},
145 \helpref{wxList<T>}{wxlist},
146 \helpref{wxVector<T>}{wxvector}
147
148 \wxheading{Include files}
149
150 <wx/dynarray.h> for wxArray and wxSortedArray and additionally <wx/arrimpl.cpp>
151 for wxObjArray.
152
153 \wxheading{Library}
154
155 \helpref{wxBase}{librarieslist}
156
157
158
159
160 \latexignore{\rtfignore{\wxheading{Function groups}}}
161
162 \membersection{Macros for template array definition}\label{arraymacros}
163
164 To use an array you must first define the array class. This is done with the
165 help of the macros in this section. The class of array elements must be (at
166 least) forward declared for WX\_DEFINE\_ARRAY, WX\_DEFINE\_SORTED\_ARRAY and
167 WX\_DECLARE\_OBJARRAY macros and must be fully declared before you use
168 WX\_DEFINE\_OBJARRAY macro.
169
170 \helpref{WX\_DEFINE\_ARRAY}{wxdefinearray}\\
171 \helpref{WX\_DEFINE\_EXPORTED\_ARRAY}{wxdefinearray}\\
172 \helpref{WX\_DEFINE\_USER\_EXPORTED\_ARRAY}{wxdefinearray}\\
173 \helpref{WX\_DEFINE\_SORTED\_ARRAY}{wxdefinesortedarray}\\
174 \helpref{WX\_DEFINE\_SORTED\_EXPORTED\_ARRAY}{wxdefinesortedarray}\\
175 \helpref{WX\_DEFINE\_SORTED\_USER\_EXPORTED\_ARRAY}{wxdefinesortedarray}\\
176 \helpref{WX\_DECLARE\_EXPORTED\_OBJARRAY}{wxdeclareobjarray}\\
177 \helpref{WX\_DECLARE\_USER\_EXPORTED\_OBJARRAY}{wxdeclareobjarray}\\
178 \helpref{WX\_DEFINE\_OBJARRAY}{wxdefineobjarray}\\
179 \helpref{WX\_DEFINE\_EXPORTED\_OBJARRAY}{wxdefineobjarray}\\
180 \helpref{WX\_DEFINE\_USER\_EXPORTED\_OBJARRAY}{wxdefineobjarray}
181
182 To slightly complicate the matters even further, the operator $->$ defined by
183 default for the array iterators by these macros only makes sense if the array
184 element type is not a pointer itself and, although it still works, this
185 provokes warnings from some compilers and to avoid them you should use the
186 {\tt \_PTR} versions of the macros above. For example, to define an array of
187 pointers to {\tt double} you should use:
188
189 \begin{verbatim}
190 WX_DEFINE_ARRAY_PTR(double *, MyArrayOfDoublePointers);
191 \end{verbatim}
192
193 Note that the above macros are generally only useful for
194 wxObject types. There are separate macros for declaring an array of a simple type,
195 such as an int.
196
197 The following simple types are supported:\\
198 int\\
199 long\\
200 size\_t\\
201 double
202
203 To create an array of a simple type, simply append the type you want in CAPS to
204 the array definition.
205
206 For example, for an integer array, you'd use one of the following variants:
207
208 \helpref{WX\_DEFINE\_ARRAY\_INT}{wxdefinearray}\\
209 \helpref{WX\_DEFINE\_EXPORTED\_ARRAY\_INT}{wxdefinearray}\\
210 \helpref{WX\_DEFINE\_USER\_EXPORTED\_ARRAY\_INT}{wxdefinearray}\\
211 \helpref{WX\_DEFINE\_SORTED\_ARRAY\_INT}{wxdefinesortedarray}\\
212 \helpref{WX\_DEFINE\_SORTED\_EXPORTED\_ARRAY\_INT}{wxdefinesortedarray}\\
213 \helpref{WX\_DEFINE\_SORTED\_USER\_EXPORTED\_ARRAY\_INT}{wxdefinesortedarray}\\
214
215 \membersection{Constructors and destructors}\label{arrayconstructorsdestructors}
216
217 Array classes are 100\% C++ objects and as such they have the appropriate copy
218 constructors and assignment operators. Copying wxArray just copies the elements
219 but copying wxObjArray copies the arrays items. However, for memory-efficiency
220 sake, neither of these classes has virtual destructor. It is not very important
221 for wxArray which has trivial destructor anyhow, but it does mean that you
222 should avoid deleting wxObjArray through a wxBaseArray pointer (as you would
223 never use wxBaseArray anyhow it shouldn't be a problem) and that you should not
224 derive your own classes from the array classes.
225
226 \helpref{wxArray default constructor}{wxarrayctordef}\\
227 \helpref{wxArray copy constructors and assignment operators}{wxarrayctorcopy}\\
228 \helpref{\destruct{wxArray}}{wxarraydtor}
229
230 \membersection{Memory management}\label{wxarraymemorymanagement}
231
232 Automatic array memory management is quite trivial: the array starts by
233 preallocating some minimal amount of memory (defined by
234 WX\_ARRAY\_DEFAULT\_INITIAL\_SIZE) and when further new items exhaust already
235 allocated memory it reallocates it adding 50\% of the currently allocated
236 amount, but no more than some maximal number which is defined by
237 ARRAY\_MAXSIZE\_INCREMENT constant. Of course, this may lead to some memory
238 being wasted (ARRAY\_MAXSIZE\_INCREMENT in the worst case, i.e. 4Kb in the
239 current implementation), so the \helpref{Shrink()}{wxarrayshrink} function is
240 provided to deallocate the extra memory. The \helpref{Alloc()}{wxarrayalloc}
241 function can also be quite useful if you know in advance how many items you are
242 going to put in the array and will prevent the array code from reallocating the
243 memory more times than needed.
244
245 \helpref{Alloc}{wxarrayalloc}\\
246 \helpref{Shrink}{wxarrayshrink}
247
248 \membersection{Number of elements and simple item access}\label{arrayelementsaccess}
249
250 Functions in this section return the total number of array elements and allow to
251 retrieve them - possibly using just the C array indexing $[]$ operator which
252 does exactly the same as \helpref{Item()}{wxarrayitem} method.
253
254 \helpref{GetCount}{wxarraygetcount}\\
255 \helpref{IsEmpty}{wxarrayisempty}\\
256 \helpref{Item}{wxarrayitem}\\
257 \helpref{Last}{wxarraylast}
258
259 \membersection{Adding items}\label{arrayadding}
260
261 \helpref{Add}{wxarrayadd}\\
262 \helpref{Insert}{wxarrayinsert}\\
263 \helpref{SetCount}{wxarraysetcount}\\
264 \helpref{WX\_APPEND\_ARRAY}{wxappendarray}\\
265 \helpref{WX\_PREPEND\_ARRAY}{wxprependarray}
266
267 \membersection{Removing items}\label{arrayremoving}
268
269 \helpref{WX\_CLEAR\_ARRAY}{wxcleararray}\\
270 \helpref{Empty}{wxarrayempty}\\
271 \helpref{Clear}{wxarrayclear}\\
272 \helpref{RemoveAt}{wxarrayremoveat}\\
273 \helpref{Remove}{wxarrayremove}
274
275 \membersection{Searching and sorting}\label{arraysearchingandsorting}
276
277 \helpref{Index}{wxarrayindex}\\
278 \helpref{Sort}{wxarraysort}
279
280 %%%%% MEMBERS HERE %%%%%
281 \helponly{\insertatlevel{2}{
282
283 \wxheading{Members}
284
285 }}
286
287 \membersection{WX\_DEFINE\_ARRAY}\label{wxdefinearray}
288
289 \func{}{WX\_DEFINE\_ARRAY}{\param{}{T}, \param{}{name}}
290
291 \func{}{WX\_DEFINE\_EXPORTED\_ARRAY}{\param{}{T}, \param{}{name}}
292
293 \func{}{WX\_DEFINE\_USER\_EXPORTED\_ARRAY}{\param{}{T}, \param{}{name}, \param{}{exportspec}}
294
295 This macro defines a new array class named {\it name} and containing the
296 elements of type {\it T}. The second form is used when compiling wxWidgets as
297 a DLL under Windows and array needs to be visible outside the DLL. The third is
298 needed for exporting an array from a user DLL.
299
300 Example:
301
302 \begin{verbatim}
303 WX_DEFINE_ARRAY_INT(int, MyArrayInt);
304
305 class MyClass;
306 WX_DEFINE_ARRAY(MyClass *, ArrayOfMyClass);
307 \end{verbatim}
308
309 Note that wxWidgets predefines the following standard array classes: {\bf wxArrayInt},
310 {\bf wxArrayLong}, {\bf wxArrayShort}, {\bf wxArrayDouble}, {\bf wxArrayPtrVoid}.
311
312
313 \membersection{WX\_DEFINE\_SORTED\_ARRAY}\label{wxdefinesortedarray}
314
315 \func{}{WX\_DEFINE\_SORTED\_ARRAY}{\param{}{T}, \param{}{name}}
316
317 \func{}{WX\_DEFINE\_SORTED\_EXPORTED\_ARRAY}{\param{}{T}, \param{}{name}}
318
319 \func{}{WX\_DEFINE\_SORTED\_USER\_EXPORTED\_ARRAY}{\param{}{T}, \param{}{name}}
320
321 This macro defines a new sorted array class named {\it name} and containing
322 the elements of type {\it T}. The second form is used when compiling wxWidgets as
323 a DLL under Windows and array needs to be visible outside the DLL. The third is
324 needed for exporting an array from a user DLL.
325
326 Example:
327
328 \begin{verbatim}
329 WX_DEFINE_SORTED_ARRAY_INT(int, MySortedArrayInt);
330
331 class MyClass;
332 WX_DEFINE_SORTED_ARRAY(MyClass *, ArrayOfMyClass);
333 \end{verbatim}
334
335 You will have to initialize the objects of this class by passing a comparison
336 function to the array object constructor like this:
337
338 \begin{verbatim}
339 int CompareInts(int n1, int n2)
340 {
341 return n1 - n2;
342 }
343
344 wxSortedArrayInt sorted(CompareInts);
345
346 int CompareMyClassObjects(MyClass *item1, MyClass *item2)
347 {
348 // sort the items by their address...
349 return Stricmp(item1->GetAddress(), item2->GetAddress());
350 }
351
352 wxArrayOfMyClass another(CompareMyClassObjects);
353 \end{verbatim}
354
355 \membersection{WX\_DECLARE\_OBJARRAY}\label{wxdeclareobjarray}
356
357 \func{}{WX\_DECLARE\_OBJARRAY}{\param{}{T}, \param{}{name}}
358
359 \func{}{WX\_DECLARE\_EXPORTED\_OBJARRAY}{\param{}{T}, \param{}{name}}
360
361 \func{}{WX\_DECLARE\_USER\_EXPORTED\_OBJARRAY}{\param{}{T}, \param{}{name}}
362
363 This macro declares a new object array class named {\it name} and containing
364 the elements of type {\it T}. The second form is used when compiling wxWidgets as
365 a DLL under Windows and array needs to be visible outside the DLL. The third is
366 needed for exporting an array from a user DLL.
367
368 Example:
369
370 \begin{verbatim}
371 class MyClass;
372 WX_DECLARE_OBJARRAY(MyClass, wxArrayOfMyClass); // note: not "MyClass *"!
373 \end{verbatim}
374
375 You must use \helpref{WX\_DEFINE\_OBJARRAY()}{wxdefineobjarray} macro to define
376 the array class - otherwise you would get link errors.
377
378 \membersection{WX\_DEFINE\_OBJARRAY}\label{wxdefineobjarray}
379
380 \func{}{WX\_DEFINE\_OBJARRAY}{\param{}{name}}
381
382 \func{}{WX\_DEFINE\_EXPORTED\_OBJARRAY}{\param{}{name}}
383
384 \func{}{WX\_DEFINE\_USER\_EXPORTED\_OBJARRAY}{\param{}{name}}
385
386 This macro defines the methods of the array class {\it name} not defined by the
387 \helpref{WX\_DECLARE\_OBJARRAY()}{wxdeclareobjarray} macro. You must include the
388 file <wx/arrimpl.cpp> before using this macro and you must have the full
389 declaration of the class of array elements in scope! If you forget to do the
390 first, the error will be caught by the compiler, but, unfortunately, many
391 compilers will not give any warnings if you forget to do the second - but the
392 objects of the class will not be copied correctly and their real destructor will
393 not be called. The latter two forms are merely aliases of the first to satisfy
394 some people's sense of symmetry when using the exported declarations.
395
396 Example of usage:
397
398 \begin{verbatim}
399 // first declare the class!
400 class MyClass
401 {
402 public:
403 MyClass(const MyClass&);
404
405 ...
406
407 virtual ~MyClass();
408 };
409
410 #include <wx/arrimpl.cpp>
411 WX_DEFINE_OBJARRAY(wxArrayOfMyClass);
412 \end{verbatim}
413
414 \membersection{WX\_APPEND\_ARRAY}\label{wxappendarray}
415
416 \func{void}{WX\_APPEND\_ARRAY}{\param{wxArray\& }{array}, \param{wxArray\& }{other}}
417
418 This macro may be used to append all elements of the {\it other} array to the
419 {\it array}. The two arrays must be of the same type.
420
421 \membersection{WX\_PREPEND\_ARRAY}\label{wxprependarray}
422
423 \func{void}{WX\_PREPEND\_ARRAY}{\param{wxArray\& }{array}, \param{wxArray\& }{other}}
424
425 This macro may be used to prepend all elements of the {\it other} array to the
426 {\it array}. The two arrays must be of the same type.
427
428 \membersection{WX\_CLEAR\_ARRAY}\label{wxcleararray}
429
430 \func{void}{WX\_CLEAR\_ARRAY}{\param{wxArray\& }{array}}
431
432 This macro may be used to delete all elements of the array before emptying it.
433 It can not be used with wxObjArrays - but they will delete their elements anyhow
434 when you call Empty().
435
436 \membersection{Default constructors}\label{wxarrayctordef}
437
438 \func{}{wxArray}{\void}
439
440 \func{}{wxObjArray}{\void}
441
442 Default constructor initializes an empty array object.
443
444 \func{}{wxSortedArray}{\param{int (*)(T first, T second)}{compareFunction}}
445
446 There is no default constructor for wxSortedArray classes - you must initialize it
447 with a function to use for item comparison. It is a function which is passed
448 two arguments of type {\it T} where {\it T} is the array element type and which
449 should return a negative, zero or positive value according to whether the first
450 element passed to it is less than, equal to or greater than the second one.
451
452 \membersection{wxArray copy constructor and assignment operator}\label{wxarrayctorcopy}
453
454 \func{}{wxArray}{\param{const wxArray\& }{array}}
455
456 \func{}{wxSortedArray}{\param{const wxSortedArray\& }{array}}
457
458 \func{}{wxObjArray}{\param{const wxObjArray\& }{array}}
459
460 \func{wxArray\&}{operator$=$}{\param{const wxArray\& }{array}}
461
462 \func{wxSortedArray\&}{operator$=$}{\param{const wxSortedArray\& }{array}}
463
464 \func{wxObjArray\&}{operator$=$}{\param{const wxObjArray\& }{array}}
465
466 The copy constructors and assignment operators perform a shallow array copy
467 (i.e. they don't copy the objects pointed to even if the source array contains
468 the items of pointer type) for wxArray and wxSortedArray and a deep copy (i.e.
469 the array element are copied too) for wxObjArray.
470
471 \membersection{wxArray::\destruct{wxArray}}\label{wxarraydtor}
472
473 \func{}{\destruct{wxArray}}{\void}
474
475 \func{}{\destruct{wxSortedArray}}{\void}
476
477 \func{}{\destruct{wxObjArray}}{\void}
478
479 The wxObjArray destructor deletes all the items owned by the array. This is not
480 done by wxArray and wxSortedArray versions - you may use
481 \helpref{WX\_CLEAR\_ARRAY}{wxcleararray} macro for this.
482
483 \membersection{wxArray::Add}\label{wxarrayadd}
484
485 \func{void}{Add}{\param{T }{item}, \param{size\_t}{ copies = $1$}}
486
487 \func{void}{Add}{\param{T *}{item}}
488
489 \func{void}{Add}{\param{T \&}{item}, \param{size\_t}{ copies = $1$}}
490
491 Appends the given number of {\it copies} of the {\it item} to the array
492 consisting of the elements of type {\it T}.
493
494 The first version is used with wxArray and wxSortedArray. The second and the
495 third are used with wxObjArray. There is an important difference between
496 them: if you give a pointer to the array, it will take ownership of it, i.e.
497 will delete it when the item is deleted from the array. If you give a reference
498 to the array, however, the array will make a copy of the item and will not take
499 ownership of the original item. Once again, it only makes sense for wxObjArrays
500 because the other array types never take ownership of their elements. Also note
501 that you cannot append more than one pointer as reusing it would lead to
502 deleting it twice (or more) and hence to a crash.
503
504 You may also use \helpref{WX\_APPEND\_ARRAY}{wxappendarray} macro to append all
505 elements of one array to another one but it is more efficient to use
506 {\it copies} parameter and modify the elements in place later if you plan to
507 append a lot of items.
508
509 \membersection{wxArray::Alloc}\label{wxarrayalloc}
510
511 \func{void}{Alloc}{\param{size\_t }{count}}
512
513 Preallocates memory for a given number of array elements. It is worth calling
514 when the number of items which are going to be added to the array is known in
515 advance because it will save unneeded memory reallocation. If the array already
516 has enough memory for the given number of items, nothing happens. In any case,
517 the existing contents of the array is not modified.
518
519 \membersection{wxArray::Clear}\label{wxarrayclear}
520
521 \func{void}{Clear}{\void}
522
523 This function does the same as \helpref{Empty()}{wxarrayempty} and additionally
524 frees the memory allocated to the array.
525
526 \membersection{wxObjArray::Detach}\label{wxobjarraydetach}
527
528 \func{T *}{Detach}{\param{size\_t }{index}}
529
530 Removes the element from the array, but, unlike,
531 \helpref{Remove()}{wxarrayremove} doesn't delete it. The function returns the
532 pointer to the removed element.
533
534 \membersection{wxArray::Empty}\label{wxarrayempty}
535
536 \func{void}{Empty}{\void}
537
538 Empties the array. For wxObjArray classes, this destroys all of the array
539 elements. For wxArray and wxSortedArray this does nothing except marking the
540 array of being empty - this function does not free the allocated memory, use
541 \helpref{Clear()}{wxarrayclear} for this.
542
543 \membersection{wxArray::GetCount}\label{wxarraygetcount}
544
545 \constfunc{size\_t}{GetCount}{\void}
546
547 Return the number of items in the array.
548
549 \membersection{wxArray::Index}\label{wxarrayindex}
550
551 \constfunc{int}{Index}{\param{T\& }{item}, \param{bool }{searchFromEnd = false}}
552
553 \constfunc{int}{Index}{\param{T\& }{item}}
554
555 The first version of the function is for wxArray and wxObjArray, the second is
556 for wxSortedArray only.
557
558 Searches the element in the array, starting from either beginning or the end
559 depending on the value of {\it searchFromEnd} parameter. {\tt wxNOT\_FOUND} is
560 returned if the element is not found, otherwise the index of the element is
561 returned.
562
563 Linear search is used for the wxArray and wxObjArray classes but binary search
564 in the sorted array is used for wxSortedArray (this is why searchFromEnd
565 parameter doesn't make sense for it).
566
567 {\bf NB:} even for wxObjArray classes, the operator==() of the elements in the
568 array is {\bf not} used by this function. It searches exactly the given
569 element in the array and so will only succeed if this element had been
570 previously added to the array, but fail even if another, identical, element is
571 in the array.
572
573 \membersection{wxArray::Insert}\label{wxarrayinsert}
574
575 \func{void}{Insert}{\param{T }{item}, \param{size\_t }{n}, \param{size\_t }{copies = $1$}}
576
577 \func{void}{Insert}{\param{T *}{item}, \param{size\_t }{n}}
578
579 \func{void}{Insert}{\param{T \&}{item}, \param{size\_t }{n}, \param{size\_t }{copies = $1$}}
580
581 Insert the given number of {\it copies} of the {\it item} into the array before
582 the existing item {\it n} - thus, {\it Insert(something, 0u)} will insert an
583 item in such way that it will become the first array element.
584
585 Please see \helpref{Add()}{wxarrayadd} for explanation of the differences
586 between the overloaded versions of this function.
587
588 \membersection{wxArray::IsEmpty}\label{wxarrayisempty}
589
590 \constfunc{bool}{IsEmpty}{\void}
591
592 Returns true if the array is empty, false otherwise.
593
594 \membersection{wxArray::Item}\label{wxarrayitem}
595
596 \constfunc{T\&}{Item}{\param{size\_t }{index}}
597
598 Returns the item at the given position in the array. If {\it index} is out of
599 bounds, an assert failure is raised in the debug builds but nothing special is
600 done in the release build.
601
602 The returned value is of type "reference to the array element type" for all of
603 the array classes.
604
605 \membersection{wxArray::Last}\label{wxarraylast}
606
607 \constfunc{T\&}{Last}{\void}
608
609 Returns the last element in the array, i.e. is the same as Item(GetCount() - 1).
610 An assert failure is raised in the debug mode if the array is empty.
611
612 The returned value is of type "reference to the array element type" for all of
613 the array classes.
614
615 \membersection{wxArray::Remove}\label{wxarrayremove}
616
617 \func{\void}{Remove}{\param{T }{item}}
618
619 Removes an element from the array by value: the first item of the
620 array equal to {\it item} is removed, an assert failure will result from an
621 attempt to remove an item which doesn't exist in the array.
622
623 When an element is removed from wxObjArray it is deleted by the array - use
624 \helpref{Detach()}{wxobjarraydetach} if you don't want this to happen. On the
625 other hand, when an object is removed from a wxArray nothing happens - you
626 should delete it manually if required:
627
628 \begin{verbatim}
629 T *item = array[n];
630 delete item;
631 array.Remove(n)
632 \end{verbatim}
633
634 See also \helpref{WX\_CLEAR\_ARRAY}{wxcleararray} macro which deletes all
635 elements of a wxArray (supposed to contain pointers).
636
637 \membersection{wxArray::RemoveAt}\label{wxarrayremoveat}
638
639 \func{\void}{RemoveAt}{\param{size\_t }{index}, \param{size\_t }{count = $1$}}
640
641 Removes {\it count} elements starting at {\it index} from the array. When an
642 element is removed from wxObjArray it is deleted by the array - use
643 \helpref{Detach()}{wxobjarraydetach} if you don't want this to happen. On
644 the other hand, when an object is removed from a wxArray nothing happens -
645 you should delete it manually if required:
646
647 \begin{verbatim}
648 T *item = array[n];
649 delete item;
650 array.RemoveAt(n)
651 \end{verbatim}
652
653 See also \helpref{WX\_CLEAR\_ARRAY}{wxcleararray} macro which deletes all
654 elements of a wxArray (supposed to contain pointers).
655
656 \membersection{wxArray::SetCount}\label{wxarraysetcount}
657
658 \func{void}{SetCount}{\param{size\_t }{count}, \param{T }{defval = T($0$)}}
659
660 This function ensures that the number of array elements is at least
661 {\it count}. If the array has already {\it count} or more items, nothing is
662 done. Otherwise, {\tt count - GetCount()} elements are added and initialized to
663 the value {\it defval}.
664
665 \wxheading{See also}
666
667 \helpref{GetCount}{wxarraygetcount}
668
669 \membersection{wxArray::Shrink}\label{wxarrayshrink}
670
671 \func{void}{Shrink}{\void}
672
673 Frees all memory unused by the array. If the program knows that no new items
674 will be added to the array it may call Shrink() to reduce its memory usage.
675 However, if a new item is added to the array, some extra memory will be
676 allocated again.
677
678 \membersection{wxArray::Sort}\label{wxarraysort}
679
680 \func{void}{Sort}{\param{CMPFUNC<T> }{compareFunction}}
681
682 The notation CMPFUNC<T> should be read as if we had the following declaration:
683
684 \begin{verbatim}
685 template int CMPFUNC(T *first, T *second);
686 \end{verbatim}
687
688 where {\it T} is the type of the array elements. I.e. it is a function returning
689 {\it int} which is passed two arguments of type {\it T *}.
690
691 Sorts the array using the specified compare function: this function should
692 return a negative, zero or positive value according to whether the first element
693 passed to it is less than, equal to or greater than the second one.
694
695 wxSortedArray doesn't have this function because it is always sorted.
696