29 Numerics library [numerics]

29.7 Numeric arrays [numarray]

29.7.6 The gslice class [class.gslice]

29.7.6.1 The gslice class overview [class.gslice.overview]

namespace std {
  class gslice {
  public:
    gslice();
    gslice(size_t s, const valarray<size_t>& l, const valarray<size_t>& d);

    size_t           start() const;
    valarray<size_t> size() const;
    valarray<size_t> stride() const;
  };
}

This class represents a generalized slice out of an array. A gslice is defined by a starting offset (s), a set of lengths (lj), and a set of strides (dj). The number of lengths shall equal the number of strides.

A gslice represents a mapping from a set of indices (ij), equal in number to the number of strides, to a single index k. It is useful for building multidimensional array classes using the valarray template, which is one-dimensional. The set of one-dimensional index values specified by a gslice are

k=s+jijdj

where the multidimensional indices ij range in value from 0 to lij1.

[Example: The gslice specification

start  = 3
length = {2, 4, 3}
stride = {19, 4, 1}

yields the sequence of one-dimensional indices

k=3+(0,1)×19+(0,1,2,3)×4+(0,1,2)×1

which are ordered as shown in the following table:

	(i0,i1,i2,k)=
		(0,0,0, 3),    
		(0,0,1, 4),    
		(0,0,2, 5),    
		(0,1,0, 7),    
		(0,1,1, 8),    
		(0,1,2, 9),    
		(0,2,0,11), 
		(0,2,1,12), 
		(0,2,2,13), 
		(0,3,0,15), 
		(0,3,1,16), 
		(0,3,2,17), 
		(1,0,0,22), 
		(1,0,1,23), 
		      
		(1,3,2,36)

That is, the highest-ordered index turns fastest. end example]

It is possible to have degenerate generalized slices in which an address is repeated.

[Example: If the stride parameters in the previous example are changed to {1, 1, 1}, the first few elements of the resulting sequence of indices will be

	(0,0,0, 3),  
	(0,0,1, 4),  
	(0,0,2, 5),  
	(0,1,0, 4),  
	(0,1,1, 5),  
	(0,1,2, 6),  
	

end example]

If a degenerate slice is used as the argument to the non-const version of operator[](const gslice&), the behavior is undefined.