tri-dimension Array alternatives

[Bruce Fox]

Hi All,

I am looking at options for holding multiple sets of 3 elements of data to represent a 'Starry Background' (x and y co-ordinates and a colour value - all integers).

I was fine with an Array for x and y (int stararry[600][1]) prior to adding the colour component.

I could use a tri-dimensional Array but that could use a ton of memory.
I could use 3 seperate Arrays (each [600]). One for x, one for y and one for colour.


Idea's?



Cheers,

[Bruce Fox]

Ok, possibly a Structure?

typedef struct starAtributes 
{
   int x, y, colour;
} starAtributes;


starAtributes stars[600];

[CornedBee]

What makes you think it'll use less memory just because you use a different way of denoting the exact same structure? As long as you have 600 stars, and each star has a x, y and color components, and each of these components is 4 bytes large, you'll use 7200 bytes of memory - which is not that much, btw.

[Bruce Fox]

My concern was with the tri-state Array. Since then I realised I could use a structure.
I now see that the two will consume the same amount of memory.

The structure (stars) is easier to use too.


Cheers,