How to Overload the [] Operator for Two-Dimensional Array Access in C ?

Overloading the [] Operator for Two-Dimensional Arrays

Operators, such as [], can be overloaded to provide custom behavior for specific data types. In the case of two-dimensional arrays, it is possible to overload the [] operator twice, allowing for a convenient and intuitive syntax.

Overloading for Multiple Indices

To overload the [] operator for a two-dimensional array, you can define a class that represents the array itself. Within this class, you can define the [] operator twice, one for each index.

class TwoDimensionalArray {
public:
    int operator[](int index1) {
        // Return a one-dimensional array
    }

    int operator[](int index1, int index2) {
        // Access the element at the given indices
    }
};

Proxy Class for Nested Arrays

Alternatively, you can use a proxy class to represent the one-dimensional array returned by the first overload. This allows for the convenient syntax of accessing elements using multiple indices.

class ArrayOfArrays {
public:
    ArrayOfArrays() {
        _arrayofarrays = new int*[10];
        for (int i = 0; i < 10; ++i)
            _arrayofarrays[i] = new int[10];
    }

    class Proxy {
    public:
        Proxy(int* _array) : _array(_array) { }

        int operator[](int index) {
            return _array[index];
        }

    private:
        int* _array;
    };

    Proxy operator[](int index) {
        return Proxy(_arrayofarrays[index]);
    }

private:
    int** _arrayofarrays;
};

Usage

With this implementation, you can use the overloaded [] operator to access elements in the two-dimensional array like so:

ArrayOfArrays aoa;
aoa[3][5];

This syntax is similar to accessing elements in a regular two-dimensional array, making it easy to use and understand.

The above is the detailed content of How to Overload the [] Operator for Two-Dimensional Array Access in C ?. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!