Question

As (hopefully) we all know, vector<bool> is totally broken and can’t be treated as a C array. What is the best way to get this functionality? So far, the ideas I have thought of are:

• Use a vector<char> instead, or
• Use a wrapper class and have vector<bool_wrapper>

How do you guys handle this problem? I need the c_array() functionality.

As a side question, if I don’t need the c_array() method, what is the best way to approach this problem if I need random access? Should I use a deque or something else?

Edit:

• I do need dynamic sizing.
• For those who don’t know, vector<bool> is specialized so that each bool takes 1 bit. Thus you can’t convert it to a C-style array.
• I guess ‘wrapper’ is a bit of a misnomer. I was thinking something like this:

Of course, then I have to read into a my_bool due to possible alignment issues 🙁

struct my_bool {     bool the_bool; }; vector<my_bool> haha_i_tricked_you; 

Answer 1

Use std::deque if you don’t need the array, yes.

Otherwise use an alternative vector that doesn’t specialize on bool, such as the one in Boost Container.