Question

I am working on editing some old C++ code that uses global arrays defined like so:

int posLShd[5] = {250, 330, 512, 600, 680};
int posLArm[5] = {760, 635, 512, 320, 265};
int posRShd[5] = {765, 610, 512, 440, 380};
int posRArm[5] = {260, 385, 512, 690, 750};
int posNeck[5] = {615, 565, 512, 465, 415};
int posHead[5] = {655, 565, 512, 420, 370};

I want to make all of these arrays private members of the Robot class defined below. However, the C++ compiler does not let me initialize data members when I declare them.

class Robot
{
   private:
       int posLShd[5];
       int posLArm[5];
       int posRShd[5];
       int posRArm[5];
       int posNeck[5];
       int posHead[5];
   public:
       Robot();
       ~Robot();
};

Robot::Robot()
{
   // initialize arrays
}

I want to initialize the elements of these six arrays in the Robot() constructor. Is there any way to do this other than assigning each element one by one?

Answer 1

If your requirement really permits then you can make these 5 arrays as static data members of your class and initialize them while defining in .cpp file like below:

class Robot
{
  static int posLShd[5];
  //...
};
int Robot::posLShd[5] = {250, 330, 512, 600, 680}; // in .cpp file

If that is not possible then, declare this arrays as usual with different name and use memcpy() for data members inside your constructor.

Edit:
For non static members, below template style can be used (for any type like int). For changing the size, simply overload number of elements likewise:

template<size_t SIZE, typename T, T _0, T _1, T _2, T _3, T _4>
struct Array
{
  Array (T (&a)[SIZE])
  {
    a[0] = _0;
    a[1] = _1;
    a[2] = _2;
    a[3] = _3;
    a[4] = _4;
  }
};

struct Robot
{
  int posLShd[5];
  int posLArm[5];
  Robot()
  {
    Array<5,int,250,330,512,600,680> o1(posLShd);
    Array<5,int,760,635,512,320,265> o2(posLArm);
  }
};

C++11

The array initialization has now become trivial:

class Robot
{
   private:
       int posLShd[5];
       ...
   public:
       Robot() : posLShd{0, 1, 2, 3, 4}, ...
       {}
};