2d Dynamic Array help

[Liberator]

Okay, so I'm writing this program to add 2 dynamic arrays(they're matricies) and put the contents in a 3rd dynamic array that has it rows size based on the smaller of the two addend arrays, ditto for the columns. I seriously thought that it would be a simple matter of simply assigning the temporary variable two subscripts but obviously I was wrong and my book while easy to read, doesn't do a real good job with dynamic arrays(or much else, it's too wordy) and doesn't cover 2d Dynamics at all. :angry:

My monstrosity looks like this:

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

typedef float * FloatP;
 
void main()
{	
	int a1r=1,a1c=1,a2r=1,a2c=1,a3r=1,a3c=1, row, col;
	FloatP A1,A2,A3;
	
	A1 = new float[a1r][a1c];
	A2 = new float[a2r][a2c];
	A3 = new float[a3r][a3c];

	cout<<"enter a1's row and columns"<<endl;
	cin>> a1r >> a2r;

	cout << "enter a2's rows and columns" << endl;
	cin >>a2r>>a2c;

	if(a1r<a2r)
	{
  a3r=a1r;
	}
	else
	{
  a3r=a2r;
	}

	if(a1c<a2c)
	{
  a3c=a1c;
	}
	else
	{
  a3c=a2c;
	}

  for(row=0; row<a3r; row++)
  {
  	for(col=0; col<a3c; col++)
  	{
    A3[row][col]=A1[row][col]+A2[row][col];
  	}
  }

  for(row=0; row<a3r; row++)
  {
  	for(col=0; col<a3c; col++)
  	{
    cout<<A3[row][col];
  	}
  }
	}

Obviously it's wrong, but I don't understand why. My book said one the pointers were attached to a temporary variable that they could be treated like a regular array.

HELP!

[jonnin]

you cannot declare this the way you did it.

do it this way:

float ** array;

array = new float *[some_size];
for(x = 0....some_size .. etc)
array[x] = new float[other size];

remember to delete in loop before you delete the outside pointer.

This is kinda painful... vectors or valarrays can help (I think there is a slice accessor thing that can really make it clean!), or
use a one D pointer and manage index yourself (many matrix packages do it that way for many reasons).

[rebecca]

Well, this is a bit old, but... How about a C function that creates 2-d arrays. I've been using it since before C++ was around and never had a reason to update it. (Hey, it it works, don't mess with it <g>). Note: BYTE = unsigned char

// Create a dynamic 2-d array
BYTE** AllocArray(int iRows, int iCols, int iBytesPerVal)
{
// Allocate memory for both the row pointers and the data
BYTE **ppData;
int iBytes = iRows * sizeof(BYTE*) + iRows * iCols * iBytesPerVal;
if ((ppData = (BYTE**)malloc(iBytes)) == NULL)
return NULL;
memset(ppData, 0, iBytes);

// Set the row pointers to the start of each row
ppData[0] = (BYTE*)(ppData + iRows);
for (int i = 1; i < iRows; i++)
ppData[i] = ppData[i-1] + iCols * iBytesPerVal;

return ppData;
}

Example:To allocate a 4x5 floating point array -
float **ppfData = (float**)AllocArray(4, 5, sizeof(float));

You can now access your array just like you expect -
ppfData[1][0] = 23.4f;
float fVal = ppfData[2][3];


Remember when you're done to use free(ppfData) rather than delete. Hope this helps.