Quick and Dirty Collection Class Notes

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Introduction

If you're tired of wading through documentation, looking for examples of how to use collection classes, then the text files that accompany this article may help. I put this together in one afternoon after a couple of exhausting days trying to use collections. Since I am on a beginner's level, advanced user's may not find this useful, but for the rest of us neophytes may make the light bulb come on sooner.

Below is an example of one of the files. Most of it was plagiarized from the MSDN library, however I can't remember where I got it all. Apologies to those who may see their code show up here. The code is in fragments with just enough to give you the idea of how it should work. If there is enough interest, I will try to correct the typos, mistakes and omissions. And I welcome all corrections.

Expand the Header Files folder, and open file StdAfx.h. At the end of the file, type:

#include <afxtempl.h>    // MFC templates

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
CTypedPtrList < class BASE_CLASS, class TYPE >

    BASE_CLASS  Base class of the typed pointer list class;
                must be a pointer list class (CObList or CPtrList).

    TYPE        Type of the elements stored in the base-class list.

    The CTypedPtrList class provides a type-safe 
    "wrapper" for objects of class
    CPtrList. When you use CTypedPtrList 
    rather than CObList or CPtrList, the
    C++ type-checking facility helps 
    eliminate errors caused by mismatched
    pointer types.

    In addition, the CTypedPtrList wrapper 
    performs much of the casting that
    would be required if you used CObList or CPtrList.

    ==================================================
    Class Members
    ==================================================
    AddHead
        POSITION AddHead( TYPE newElement );
        void AddHead( CTypedPtrList<BASE_CLASS, TYPE> *pNewList );
    AddTail
        POSITION AddTail( TYPE newElement );
        void AddTail( CTypedPtrList<BASE_CLASS, TYPE> *pNewList );
    GetAt
        TYPE& GetAt( POSITION position );
        TYPE GetAt( POSITION position ) const;
    GetHead
        TYPE& GetHead( );
        TYPE GetHead( ) const;
    GetNext
        TYPE& GetNext( POSITION& rPosition );
        TYPE GetNext( POSITION& rPosition ) const;
    GetPrev
        TYPE& GetPrev(POSITION& rPosition );
        TYPE GetPrev( POSITION& rPosition ) const;
    GetTail
        TYPE& GetTail( );
        TYPE GetTail( ) const;
    RemoveHead
        TYPE RemoveHead( );
    RemoveTail
        TYPE RemoveTail( );
    SetAt
        void SetAt( POSITION pos, TYPE newElement );

    ==================================================
    Create
    ==================================================
    typedef CTypedPtrList<CPtrList, CMyStruct*> CMyStructList;
    CMyStructList m_myPtrList;

    typedef CTypedPtrList<CObList, CMyObject*>  CMyObList;
    CMyObList m_myObList;

    ==================================================
    Insert
    ==================================================
    CMyStruct* pMyStruct = new CMyStruct();
    pMyStruct->m_int = 1234;
    pMyStruct->m_float = 12.34f;
    pMyStruct->m_str.LoadString(IDS_INITIAL_STRING);
    m_myPtrList.AddTail(pMyStruct);

    m_myPtrList.InsertBefore(pos, pMyStruct);

    CMyObject* pMyObject = new CMyObject();
    m_myObList.AddTail(pMyObject);

    ==================================================
    Iterate
    ==================================================
    POSITION pos = m_myPtrList.GetHeadPosition();
    while( pos != NULL )
    {
        CMyStruct* pMyStruct = m_myPtrList.GetNext( pos );
    }

    ==================================================
    Find
    ==================================================
    pos = m_myPtrList.Find(pMyStruct);

    ==================================================
    Update
    ==================================================
    m_myPtrList.SetAt(pos, pMyStruct);

    ==================================================
    Delete
    ==================================================
    m_myPtrList.RemoveAt(pos);

    POSITION pos = m_myPtrList.GetHeadPosition();
    while (pos != NULL)
    {
        delete m_myPtrList.GetNext(pos);
    }
    m_myPtrList.RemoveAll();

    while (!m_myObList.IsEmpty())
    {
        delete m_myObList.GetHead();
        m_myObList.RemoveHead();
    }

    ==================================================
    Serialize
    ==================================================
    nCount = (WORD)m_myPtrList.GetCount();
    if (ar.IsStoring())
    {
        ar << nCount;
        pos = m_myPtrList.GetHeadPosition();
        while (pos != NULL)
        {
            CMyStruct* pMyStruct = m_myPtrList.GetNext(pos);
            w = (WORD)pMyStruct->m_int;
            ar << w;
            ar << pMyStruct->m_float;
            ar << pMyStruct->m_str;
            nCount--;
        }
        ASSERT(nCount == 0);
    }
    else
    {
        ar >> nCount;
        while (nCount-- > 0)
        {
            CMyStruct* pMyStruct = new CMyStruct;
            ar >> w;
            pMyStruct->m_int = w;
            ar >> pMyStruct->m_float;
            ar >> pMyStruct->m_str;
            m_myPtrList.AddTail(pMyStruct);
        }
    }

    m_myObList.Serialize(ar);
    // Note: CMyObject serializes itself
    void CMyObject::Serialize(CArchive& ar)
    {
        CObject::Serialize( ar );
        if( ar.IsStoring() )
            ar << i;
        else
            ar >> i;
    }

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