MultiDimensionalArray class [] and []= Methods

Data Structures and Algorithms with Object-Oriented Design Patterns in Ruby

`MultiDimensionalArray` class `[]` and `[]=` Methods

The elements of a multi-dimensional array are accessed using the [] and []= methods of the MultiDimensionalArray class. For example, you can access the element of a three-dimensional array a like this:

value = a[i,j,k]

which invokes the [] method with the array (i,j,k) as the index expression. Similarly, you can modify the

element like this:

a[i,j,k] = value

which invokes the []= method with the array (i,j,k) as the index expression.

Program shows how that [] and []= methods are both implemented using a getOffset method. The getOffset method takes an array of n indices and computes the position of the corresponding element in the one-dimensional array according to Equation . This computation takes O(n) time in the worst case, where n is the number of dimensions. Consequently, the running times of the [] and []= methods are also O(n).

program3125
Program: MultiDimensionalArray class [] and []= methods.