Question

Example:

I have a function that works with vectors:

double interpolate2d(const vector<double> & xvals, const vector<double> & yvals, double xv, double yv, const vector<vector<double> > &fvals) {
    int xhi, xlo, yhi, ylo;
    double xphi, yphi;
    bracketval(xvals,xv,xhi,xlo,xphi);
    bracketval(yvals,yv,yhi,ylo,yphi);
    return (fvals[xhi][yhi]*xphi+fvals[xlo][yhi]*(1.-xphi))*yphi + (fvals[xhi][ylo]*xphi+fvals[xlo][ylo]*(1.-xphi))*(1.-yphi);
}

But now I want to call it with boost::array elements for the first 2 arguments (same with bracketval()), if std::vector and boost::array were self-implemented, I would be able to derive both from a common base class (interface-like) enforcing an implementation of operator[], since both are library-provided, is there any way to cast/specify such a restriction?

I can always resort to plain c-arrays, but it’s not very neat.

Edit: FWIW, here is the original bracketval implementation:

void bracketval(const vector<double> &vals, double v, int &hi, int &lo, double &prophi){
    hi=vals.size()-1;
    lo=0;
    while(abs(hi-lo)>1) {
        int md = (hi+lo)/2;
        if(vals[md]>v) hi=md; else lo=md;
    }
    if(vals[hi]!=vals[lo])
        prophi = (v-vals[lo])/(vals[hi]-vals[lo]);
    else
        prophi = 0.5;

}

Answer 1

This works with std::vector, boost::array, built-in arrays an generally with anything that is indexable. I’ve also included a suggestion of how you should implement the bracketval function:

template<class Vec>
void bracketval(Vec const & xvals, double xv, int xhi, int xlo, double xphi)
{
}

template <class Vec, class VecOfVecs>
double interpolate2d(Vec const & xvals, Vec const & yvals, 
                     double xv, double yv,
                     VecOfVecs const & fvals)
{
    int xhi, xlo, yhi, ylo;
    double xphi, yphi;
    bracketval(xvals,xv,xhi,xlo,xphi);
    bracketval(yvals,yv,yhi,ylo,yphi);
    return (fvals[xhi][yhi]*xphi+fvals[xlo][yhi]*(1.-xphi))
             *yphi + (fvals[xhi][ylo]*xphi+fvals[xlo][ylo]
             *(1.-xphi))*(1.-yphi);
}

int main()
{
    {
        std::vector<double> v, w;
        std::vector<std::vector<double> > vv;
        interpolate2d(v, w, 1., 2., vv);
    }
    {
        boost::array<double, 4> v, w;
        boost::array<boost::array<double, 4>, 4> vv;
        interpolate2d(v, w, 1., 2., vv);
    }
    {
        double v[4], w[4];
        double vv[4][4];
        interpolate2d(v, w, 1., 2., vv);
    }    
}

You can even add an extra template parameter if you envision the possibility that the second vector could be of a different type that the first (e.g., the first a vector and the second a boost::array):

template <class VecX, class VecY, class VecOfVecs>
double interpolate2d(VecX const & xvals, VecY const & yvals, 
                     double xv, double yv,
                     VecOfVecs const & fvals)