Check array position for null/empty

Question

I have an array which might contain empty/null positions (eg: array[2]=3, array[4]=empty/unassigned). I want to check in a loop whether the array position is null.

array[4]==NULL //this doesn't work

I'm pretty new to C++.
Thanks.

Edit: Here's more code; A header file contains the following declaration

int y[50];

The population of the array is done in another class,

geoGraph.y[x] = nums[x];

The array should be checked for null in the following code;

    int x=0;
    for(int i=0; i<sizeof(y);i++){
        //check for null
        p[i].SetPoint(Recto.Height()-x,y[i]);
        if(i>0){
            dc.MoveTo(p[i-1]);
            dc.LineTo(p[i]);

        }
        x+=50;
    }

Answer 1

If your array is not initialized then it contains randoms values and cannot be checked !

To initialize your array with 0 values:

int array[5] = {0};

Then you can check if the value is 0:

array[4] == 0;

When you compare to NULL, it compares to 0 as the NULL is defined as integer value 0 or 0L.

If you have an array of pointers, better use the nullptr value to check:

char* array[5] = {nullptr}; // we defined an array of char*, initialized to nullptr

if (array[4] == nullptr)
    // do something

Answer 2

If the array contains integers, the value cannot be NULL. NULL can be used if the array contains pointers.

SomeClass* myArray[2];
myArray[0] = new SomeClass();
myArray[1] = NULL;

if (myArray[0] != NULL) { // this will be executed }
if (myArray[1] != NULL) { // this will NOT be executed }

As http://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/types/NULL states, NULL is a null pointer constant !

Answer 3

You can use boost::optional (or std::optional for newer versions), which was developed in particular for decision of your problem:

boost::optional<int> y[50];
....
geoGraph.y[x] = nums[x];
....
const size_t size_y = sizeof(y)/sizeof(y[0]); //!!!! correct size of y!!!!
for(int i=0; i<size_y;i++){
   if(y[i]) { //check for null
      p[i].SetPoint(Recto.Height()-x,*y[i]);
      ....
   }
}

PS Do not use C-type array -> use std::array or std::vector:

std::array<int, 50> y;   //not int y[50] !!!

Answer 4

There is no bound checking in array in C programming. If you declare array as

int arr[50];

Then you can even write as

arr[51] = 10;

The compiler would not throw an error. Hope this answers your question.