Alternate between vectors and arrays using templates

Question

Let's assume that I have a function that prints a set of numbers: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and these numbers can either be stored as an array, or, as a vector. In my current system I therefore have two functions that accept either of these parameters.

void printNumbers(std::vector<double> &printNumbers)
{
   //code 
   //....
}

And therefore one that accepts an array..

void printNumbers(int* numbers)
{
   //code 
   //...
}

This seems a waste of code, and, I was thinking that I could better take advantage of code re-use which got me thinking to this: Can I use a template to determine which type of input is being passed to the function? For example, whether it's a vector or an array or just a single integer value?

Here is the prototype below:

#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

template<class T>
void printNumbers(T numbers)
{
// code 
// code
}

int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
   int numbers[] = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5};
   printNumbers<array> (numbers);    
}

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

The usual idiom is to pass iterators, one for the first element of the range, and one corresponding to "one past the end":

template<class Iterator>
void printNumbers(Iterator begin, Iterator end)
{
  for (Iterator i = begin; i != end; ++i)
    std::cout << *i << " ";
  std::cout << "\n";
}

int main() 
{
   int numbers[] = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5};
   printNumbers(numbers, numbers + 5);
   printNumbers(std::begin(numbers), std::end(numbers); // C++11 version
   std::vector<int> v{1,2,3,4,5};
   printNumbers(v.begin(), v.end());    
}

Answer 2

You could follow the example of the STL algorithms and accept an iterator range. Containers have their iterator types, and pointers can be used to iterate over arrays:

template <typename InputIterator>
void printNumbers(InputIterator start, InputIterator end) {
    // print "*start", and iterate up to "end"
}

For convenience, you can overload this to accept containers and arrays directly:

template <typename Container>
void printNumbers(Container const & c) {
    printNumbers(c.begin(), c.end());
}

template <typename T, size_t N>
void printNumbers(T (const & a)[N]) {
    printNumbers(a, a+N);
}

In C++11 (or with your own begin and end functions) you can combine these:

template <typename Container>
void printNumbers(Container const & c) {
    printNumbers(std::begin(c), std::end(c));
}