Element access

1. at(pos)

Returns a reference to the element at position pos with bounds checking. If pos is not within the range of the container, an exception of type std::out_of_range is thrown.

The complexity is constant O(1).

#include <array>

int main()
{
    std::array<int, 3> arr;

    // write values
    arr.at(0) = 2;
    arr.at(1) = 4;
    arr.at(2) = 6;
        
    // read values
    int a = arr.at(0); // a is now 2
    int b = arr.at(1); // b is now 4
    int c = arr.at(2); // c is now 6

    return 0;
}

2) operator[pos]

Returns a reference to the element at position pos without bounds checking. If pos is not within the range of the container, a runtime segmentation violation error can occur. This method provides element access equivalent to classic arrays and thereof more efficient than at(pos).

The complexity is constant O(1).

#include <array>

int main()
{
    std::array<int, 3> arr;

    // write values
    arr[0] = 2;
    arr[1] = 4;
    arr[2] = 6;
        
    // read values
    int a = arr[0]; // a is now 2
    int b = arr[1]; // b is now 4
    int c = arr[2]; // c is now 6

    return 0;
}

3) std::get<pos>

This non-member function returns a reference to the element at compile-time constant position pos without bounds checking. If pos is not within the range of the container, a runtime segmentation violation error can occur.

The complexity is constant O(1).

#include <array>

int main()
{
    std::array<int, 3> arr;

    // write values
    std::get<0>(arr) = 2;
    std::get<1>(arr) = 4;
    std::get<2>(arr) = 6;
        
    // read values
    int a = std::get<0>(arr); // a is now 2
    int b = std::get<1>(arr); // b is now 4
    int c = std::get<2>(arr); // c is now 6

    return 0;
}

4) front()

Returns a reference to the first element in container. Calling front() on an empty container is undefined.

The complexity is constant O(1).

Note: For a container c, the expression c.front() is equivalent to *c.begin().

#include <array>

int main()
{
    std::array<int, 3> arr{ 2, 4, 6 };

    int a = arr.front(); // a is now 2

    return 0;
}

5) back()

Returns reference to the last element in the container. Calling back() on an empty container is undefined.

The complexity is constant O(1).

#include <array>

int main()
{
    std::array<int, 3> arr{ 2, 4, 6 };

    int a = arr.back(); // a is now 6

    return 0;
}

6) data()

Returns pointer to the underlying array serving as element storage. The pointer is such that range [data(); data() + size()) is always a valid range, even if the container is empty (data() is not dereferenceable in that case).

The complexity is constant O(1).

#include <iostream>
#include <cstring>
#include <array>

int main ()
{
    const char* cstr = "Test string";
    std::array<char, 12> arr;
    
    std::memcpy(arr.data(), cstr, 12); // copy cstr to arr
    
    std::cout << arr.data(); // outputs: Test string
    
    return 0;
}