HowTo & multidimensional matrix in Ada

Question

I was wondering about how to create a multidimensional matrix using Ada language, I mean, stacking i number of matrix of j x k dimension:

One way I have found is using multidimensional arrays, quite easy.

Are there other ways to accomplish it? Maybe using Ada.Containers.Vectors or mixing it within the array declaration? Any formal library?

Thanks

Answer 1

Here are two examples that might be of use.

• The first example shows the use of an array of multi-dimensional arrays. When using this method you need, at some point, to fix the size of the stack of matrices (here: during the declaration of S, the size is fixed to 4). Memory is preallocated to hold all four matrices.

• The second example shows the use of an Ada vector container to which matrices can be added. Vectors are "dynamic arrays". Memory is allocated when matrices added.

The Ada standard library that ships with (recent versions of) the GNAT compiler contains formal containers packages (see also here).

example_1.adb

with Ada.Text_IO; use Ada.Text_IO;

procedure Example_1 is

   type Rows  is new Natural range 0 .. 2;
   type Cols  is new Natural range 0 .. 2;

   type Matrix is array (Rows, Cols) of Integer;
   --  A 2D matrix.
   
   type Stack is array (Natural range <>) of Matrix;
   --  Stack of 2D matrices.


   S : constant Stack (1 .. 4) :=
     (1 => (others => (others => 1)),
      2 => (others => (others => 2)),
      3 => (others => (others => 3)),
      4 => (others => (others => 4)));

begin
   for Mtx of S loop   --  using "of", not "in", such to iterate over the elements.

      for R in Rows loop
         Put ("[");
         for C in Cols loop
            Put (Mtx (R, C)'Image);
         end loop;
         Put_Line (" ]");
      end loop;

      New_Line;
   end loop;
   
end Example_1;

example_2.adb

with Ada.Text_IO; use Ada.Text_IO;
with Ada.Containers.Vectors;

procedure Example_2 is

   type Rows  is new Natural range 0 .. 2;
   type Cols  is new Natural range 0 .. 2;

   type Matrix is array (Rows, Cols) of Integer;
   --  A 2D matrix.
      
   package Stacks is new Ada.Containers.Vectors (Natural, Matrix);
   use Stacks;
   
   subtype Stack is Stacks.Vector;
   --  Stack of 2D matrices.
   
   Empty_Stack : constant Stack := Stacks.Empty_Vector;
   --  An empty stack.   

   
   S : Stack;
   
   --  Instead of using Append (..) shown below, you can also 
   --  initialize the stack using:
   --
   --    S : Stack := Empty_Stack
   --      & (others => (others => 1))
   --      & (others => (others => 2))
   --      & (others => (others => 3))
   --      & (others => (others => 4));
   
begin   
   S.Append ((others => (others => 1)));
   S.Append ((others => (others => 2)));
   S.Append ((others => (others => 3)));
   S.Append ((others => (others => 4)));
   --  ...
   
   for Mtx of S loop   --  using "of", not "in", such to iterate over the elements.

      for R in Rows loop
         Put ("[");
         for C in Cols loop
            Put (Mtx (R, C)'Image);
         end loop;
         Put_Line (" ]");
      end loop;

      New_Line;
   end loop;
   
end Example_2;

output (same for both examples)

[ 1 1 1 ]
[ 1 1 1 ]
[ 1 1 1 ]

[ 2 2 2 ]
[ 2 2 2 ]
[ 2 2 2 ]

[ 3 3 3 ]
[ 3 3 3 ]
[ 3 3 3 ]

[ 4 4 4 ]
[ 4 4 4 ]
[ 4 4 4 ]

Answer 2

You could also try standard Ada packages Real Vectors and Matrices or Complex Vectors and Matrices which also provide some operations on matrices. It can be the easiest way to accomplish it.