how to create a contiguous 2d array in c++?

Question

I want to create a function that returns a contiguous 2D array in C++.

It is not a problem to create the array using the command:

 int (*v)[cols] = n         


        

Answer 1

None of the ways of defining a 2D dynamic array in standard C++ are entirely satisfactory in my opinion.

You end up having to roll your own solutions. Luckily there is already a solution in Boost. boost::multi_array:

#include "boost/multi_array.hpp"

template<typename T>
boost::multi_array<T, 2> create_array(int rows, int cols) {
  auto dims = boost::extents[rows][cols];
  return boost::multi_array<T, 2>(dims);
}

int main() {
  auto array = create_array<int>(4, 3);
  array[3][2] = 0;
}

Live demo.