Array lifetime

[minoad]

How can i create an array within a funtion or a class and have it available to the rest of the code in the entire project?

Micah A. Norman

 

[ArkM]

The only way: allocate an array in the function then return a pointer to it, for example:

int* AllocArrayAndOthers(int n, /* another parms */)
{
...
  int* pmyarray;
...
  p = new int[n];
...
  return p;
}

Don't forget to deallocate this array later:

...
int* p = AllocArrayAndOthers(......);
...
delete [] p;
...
[code]
Of course, you may wrap this pointer into the proper class (for safety) and return this class object, but it's the other story. The key point here: only dynamic allocation creates long-lived objects on the fly...

 

[cpjust]

You could also make it static.

class CBlah
{
public:
    ...
    static const std::string*  ReturnStringArray();
};

const std::string*
CBlah::ReturnStringArray()
{
    static const std::string str[] = { "First",
                                       "Second",
                                       "Third" };
    return str;
}