How do I create an array of pointers?

Question

I am trying to create an array of pointers. These pointers will point to a Student object that I created. How do I do it? What I have now is:

Student * db = new Student[5];

But each element in that array is the student object, not a pointer to the student object. Thanks.

Answer 1

Student** db = new Student*[5];
// To allocate it statically:
Student* db[5];

Answer 2

#include <vector>
std::vector <Student *> db(5);
// in use
db[2] = & someStudent;

The advantage of this is that you don't have to worry about deleting the allocated storage - the vector does it for you.

Answer 3

An array of pointers is written as a pointer of pointers:

Student **db = new Student*[5];

Now the problem is, that you only have reserved memory for the five pointers. So you have to iterate through them to create the Student objects themselves.

In C++, for most use cases life is easier with a std::vector.

std::vector<Student*> db;

Now you can use push_back() to add new pointers to it and [] to index it. It is cleaner to use than the ** thing.