Extended Library: Vector in C

C++ styled dynamic array (vector) as a linked list, written in C.

For simple projects, using a dynamic array to set an array bound is much easier and memory efficient than setting a huge upper bound. Setting an upper bound could waste tons of memory and be hard to keep track of. When developers are limited to using C, a simple dynamic array makes code simpler and take less memory. Functions are concisely named to match the naming style of C standard library functions, such as a function named pushb_v compared to sscanf_s in <stdlib.h>.

Usage

Create a directory to store the source files (ex. ~/.extdlib/c/)
cd to the file (ex cd ~/.extdlib/c/)

Clone this repository into the directory:

$ git clone https://github.com/s7a19t4r/extdlib-cvector

Place the header file named vector.h in a directory (ex. ~/.extdlib/c/vector.h).
Add -L[filepath] to your compile flags (ex. -L~/.extdlib/c/extdlib-cvector/src/).
Compile your source file as normal (ex. gcc -L~/.extdlib/c/extdlib-cvector/src/ main.c -o main.elf)

See GUIDELINES.md for correct usage of project

Contributing

Clone the Repository

cd to a directory and clone:

$ git clone https://github.com/s7a19t4r/extdlib-cvector

See GUIDELINES.md for contribution guidelines

Install `gcc` Compiler

Debian/Windows (WSL2)

$ sudo apt install gcc

Arch

$ sudo pacman -S gcc

Fedora

$ sudo dnf install gcc

macOS (installs LLVM Clang)

$ brew install llvm

Install ClangFormat (config provided)

Debian/Windows (WSL2)

$ sudo apt install clang-format

Arch

$ sudo pacman -S clang-format

Fedora

$ sudo dnf install clang-tools-extra

macOS

$ brew install clang-format

Important

Currently is only able to store integer data
Maximum size is SIZE_MAX
Some functions may be slower than a C++ vector
Reverse iteration will be especially slow because of the singly linked list format
Vector setup and cleanup are NOT implicitly called; they must be manually implemented.
Because C is a procedural language, the raw data of the vector struct can be accessed. Please refrain from directly accessing members and only use the get methods

Features

Memory usage scales with the array size
Supports most features of a C++ vector, excluding iterators and time complexity
Quality of life features that C++ vectors do not have, such as printing the list, sum, product, etc...
Ability to store data types other than integers using void pointers (May cause significant changes to code structure, function return values, function behavior, and function parameters)
Speed of a C++ vector (unlikely)

Compilation

Makefile is provided, run make to compile

M-Y-Sun/extdlib-cvector