How to move a std::vector into a raw array in C++

Question

How can I move the contents of std::vector into an array safely without copying or iterating over all elements?

void someFunc(float* arr, std::size_t& size)
{
   std::vector<float> vec(5, 1.5f);
   // do something with the data

   size = vec.size();
   arr = vec.data(); // this doesn't work, as at the end of the function the data in std::vector will be deallocated

}

main()
{
   float* arr;
   std::size_t size{0};

   someFunc(arr, size);

   // do something with the data
   delete [] arr;
}

How can I assign my array with the data in std::vector and making sure that deallocation will not be called on std::vector? Or maybe any other ideas to go around this?

Answer 1

You can't.

A vector owns its buffer. You cannot steal it.

You will have to copy/move the elements individually, optionally using a helper algorithm that does the iteration for you (std::copy/std::move).

(Also note that, since your element type is just float, a move here is a copy.)

(Also note that this std::move, the algorithm, is not the same as std::move, the rvalue cast.)

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Consider whether you really need to do this. You can treat the vector's data as an array using vec.data() whenever you need to, as long as you keep the vector alive. Surely that's better than sacrificing RAII?