How to pass std::array instance address as parameter to std::min_element?

Question

I'm trying to read the minimum value from a range in a big chunk of memory, I want to provide the memory range to a function and then find the minimum element. I need to do it this way because I can not change the code or use dynamic memory allocation.

I'm using MinGW-W64-builds-4.3.5 in Win 7.

I saw an example in http://www.cplusplus.com/reference/algorithm/min_element/ but they are using C style arrays which I know I can use as pointers to memory addresses and perform pointer arithmetic to indicate the end of the range.

// min_element/max_element example
#include <iostream>     // std::cout
#include <algorithm>    // std::min_element, std::max_element

bool myfn(int i, int j) { return i<j; }

struct myclass {
  bool operator() (int i,int j) { return i<j; }
} myobj;

int main () {
  int myints[] = {3,7,2,5,6,4,9};

  // using default comparison:
  std::cout << "The smallest element is " << *std::min_element(myints,myints+7) << '\n';
  std::cout << "The largest element is "  << *std::max_element(myints,myints+7) << '\n';

  // using function myfn as comp:
  std::cout << "The smallest element is " << *std::min_element(myints,myints+7,myfn) << '\n';
  std::cout << "The largest element is "  << *std::max_element(myints,myints+7,myfn) << '\n';

  // using object myobj as comp:
  std::cout << "The smallest element is " << *std::min_element(myints,myints+7,myobj) << '\n';
  std::cout << "The largest element is "  << *std::max_element(myints,myints+7,myobj) << '\n';

  return 0;
}

I'm tyring to do something similar with std::array but I'm getting compiler errors, due to the iterators, is there a way to do something similar with std::array. Here is my code:

#define N_ELEMENTS (128u)
short int FindMinElement(const std::array<short int, N_ELEMENTS>& array)
{
    return *(std::min_element(array, array+N_ELEMENTS));
}

Here is my compiler output:

> Executing task: g++.exe -Wall -g c:\Users\uidr8361\Desktop\C++\Tmp\ReadArcPixels.cpp <

c:\Users\uidr8361\Desktop\C++\Tmp\ReadArcPixels.cpp: In function 'short int FindMinElement(const std::array<short int, 128>&)':
c:\Users\uidr8361\Desktop\C++\Tmp\ReadArcPixels.cpp:41:55: error: no matching function for call to 'min_element(const std::array<short int, 128>&, const std::array<short int, 128>*)'
     return *(std::min_element(array, &array+N_ELEMENTS));
                                                       ^
In file included from C:/mingw64/lib/gcc/x86_64-w64-mingw32/8.1.0/include/c++/algorithm:62,
                 from c:\Users\uidr8361\Desktop\C++\Tmp\ReadArcPixels.cpp:4:
C:/mingw64/lib/gcc/x86_64-w64-mingw32/8.1.0/include/c++/bits/stl_algo.h:5610:12: note: candidate: 'template<class _FIter> constexpr _FIter std::min_element(_FIter, _FIter)'
     inline min_element(_ForwardIterator __first, _ForwardIterator __last)
            ^~~~~~~~~~~
C:/mingw64/lib/gcc/x86_64-w64-mingw32/8.1.0/include/c++/bits/stl_algo.h:5610:12: note:   template argument deduction/substitution failed:
c:\Users\uidr8361\Desktop\C++\Tmp\ReadArcPixels.cpp:41:55: note:   deduced conflicting types for parameter '_FIter' ('std::array<short int, 128>' and 'const std::array<short int, 128>*')
     return *(std::min_element(array, &array+N_ELEMENTS));
                                                       ^
In file included from C:/mingw64/lib/gcc/x86_64-w64-mingw32/8.1.0/include/c++/algorithm:62,
                 from c:\Users\uidr8361\Desktop\C++\Tmp\ReadArcPixels.cpp:4:
C:/mingw64/lib/gcc/x86_64-w64-mingw32/8.1.0/include/c++/bits/stl_algo.h:5635:5: note: candidate: 'template<class _FIter, class _Compare> constexpr _FIter std::min_element(_FIter, _FIter, _Compare)'
     min_element(_ForwardIterator __first, _ForwardIterator __last,
     ^~~~~~~~~~~
C:/mingw64/lib/gcc/x86_64-w64-mingw32/8.1.0/include/c++/bits/stl_algo.h:5635:5: note:   template argument deduction/substitution failed:
c:\Users\uidr8361\Desktop\C++\Tmp\ReadArcPixels.cpp:41:55: note:   deduced conflicting types for parameter '_FIter' ('std::array<short int, 128>' and 'const std::array<short int, 128>*')
     return *(std::min_element(array, &array+N_ELEMENTS));

Note : I have to be very specific with the range of addresses since I'm working with a big multi-dimensional array so I can not use std::begin() or std::end(). Also I cannot work with vector since I'm need to use static memory allocation and not dynamic.

EDIT:

Thanks everybody for your answers but I'm also having a constraint here, as I mentioned above the array I'm passing to the function is bigger than the N_ELEMENTS and that also causes a compilation error due to the type conversion. So @PlinyTheElder solution worked fine for me but I'm looking for a more modern C++ (C++11 onwards) like solution.

Answer 1

std::array has begin and end member functions that give you iterators to the begining and one past the end of the array. You can use those instead like

#define N_ELEMENTS (128u)
short int FindMinElement(const std::array<short int, N_ELEMENTS>& array)
{
    return *std::min_element(array.begin(), array.end());
}

to get the entire range or if you need a sub section

#define N_ELEMENTS (128u)
short int FindMinElement(const std::array<short int, N_ELEMENTS>& array)
{
    return *std::min_element(array.begin(), array.begin() + N_ELEMENTS);
}

---

You might also want to consider something like

constexpr auto N_ELEMENTS = 128u;

instead of

#define N_ELEMENTS (128u)

for constants.

Answer 2

Of course you can!

You can pass pointers to your data type into the std::min_element function - they serve as random iterators. You don't need to use the begin() and end() functions, any pointers into the array will work. Example:

#include <array>
#include <algorithm>
#include <iostream>

int main()
{
    std::array<int,1000> arr;

    size_t size = arr.size();
    int* start = &arr[0];
    int* finish = start + size;

    for (int* i = start; i < finish; ++i) *i = rand();

    int* minP = std::min_element(start, finish);

    int minVal = *minP;

    std::cout << minVal;
}