Introduction

The GenericContainer class is a powerful and flexible data structure designed to manage a wide variety of data types and structures. Its capabilities include storing integers, real numbers, strings, vectors, maps, and more. This manual is a simple guide to using the GenericContainer class, providing explanations, usage examples, and descriptions of various functionalities.

Features

Data Types: Supports integers, floating-point numbers, strings, vectors, maps, and complex numbers.
Formatted I/O: Allows reading and writing formatted data from and to files.
Serialization: Facilitates serialization and deserialization of the entire container.
Error Handling: Comprehensive error handling with exceptions and error codes.
Flexibility: Supports nested containers, enabling complex data structures.

Class Overview

The GenericContainer class is designed to be generic, allowing the user to store any data type. It provides methods to manipulate the stored data and to perform various operations, including:

Setting and getting values.
Managing collections of data with vectors and maps.
Reading from and writing to files.
Serializing and deserializing the container.

Example Usage

This section presents various examples demonstrating the functionalities of the GenericContainer class.

Example 1: Basic Operations

This example illustrates basic operations, including setting and retrieving integer values.

#include "GenericContainer.hh"
#include <iostream>
 
using namespace std;
 
int main() {
    GenericContainer gc;
 
    // Setting an integer value
    gc["integerValue"] = 42;
 
    // Retrieving the integer value
    int value = gc["integerValue"].get_int();
    cout << "The integer value is: " << value << endl;
 
    return 0;
}

Example 2: Working with Vectors

This example shows how to create and manipulate a vector within a GenericContainer.

#include "GenericContainer.hh"
#include <iostream>
 
using namespace std;
 
int main() {
    GenericContainer gc;
    gc.set_vec_real(5);  // Create a vector of 5 real numbers
 
    // Assigning values to the vector
    gc[0] = 3.14;
    gc[1] = 2.71;
    gc[2] = 1.41;
 
    // Displaying vector contents
    cout << "Vector contents: ";
    for (int i = 0; i < gc.get_vector_size(); i++) {
        cout << gc[i].get_real() << " ";
    }
    cout << endl;
 
    return 0;
}

Example 3: Using Maps

Demonstrates how to create and manipulate maps within a GenericContainer.

#include "GenericContainer.hh"
#include <iostream>
 
using namespace std;
 
int main() {
    GenericContainer gc;
    gc.set_map();  // Create a map
 
    // Setting values in the map
    gc["key1"] = 123;
    gc["key2"] = "example";
 
    // Retrieving values from the map
    cout << "Key1: " << gc["key1"].get_int() << endl;
    cout << "Key2: " << gc["key2"].get_string() << endl;
 
    return 0;
}

Example 4: Nested Containers

Illustrates how to create nested containers with vectors and maps.

#include "GenericContainer.hh"
#include <iostream>
 
using namespace std;
 
int main() {
    GenericContainer gc;
    gc.set_vec_real(2);  // Create a vector of 2 elements
 
    // Create first element as a map
    gc[0].set_map();
    gc[0]["innerKey1"] = 100;
 
    // Create second element as another vector
    gc[1].set_vec_real(3);
    gc[1][0] = 1.0;
    gc[1][1] = 2.0;
    gc[1][2] = 3.0;
 
    // Display contents
    cout << "Inner Key1: " << gc[0]["innerKey1"].get_int() << endl;
    cout << "Vector contents of second element: ";
    for (int i = 0; i < gc[1].get_vector_size(); i++) {
        cout << gc[1][i].get_real() << " ";
    }
    cout << endl;
 
    return 0;
}

Example 5: Serialization

This example showcases how to serialize and deserialize a GenericContainer.

#include "GenericContainer.hh"
#include <iostream>
#include <vector>
 
using namespace std;
 
int main() {
    GenericContainer gc;
    gc["name"] = "Doxygen";
    gc["version"] = 1.8;
 
    // Serialize the GenericContainer
    int sz = gc.mem_size();
    vector<uint8_t> buffer(sz);
    int sz1 = gc.serialize(sz, buffer.data());
 
    cout << "Serialized size: " << sz1 << endl;
 
    // Deserialize into a new GenericContainer
    GenericContainer gc_new;
    gc_new.de_serialize(sz, buffer.data());
 
    cout << "Deserialized Name: " << gc_new["name"].get_string() << endl;
 
    return 0;
}

Example 6: Complex Data Structures

Demonstrates the creation of a complex data structure with various data types.

#include "GenericContainer.hh"
#include <iostream>
 
using namespace std;
 
int main() {
    GenericContainer gc;
 
    // Create a map with different data types
    gc.set_map();
    gc["intValue"] = 100;
    gc["stringValue"] = "Hello World";
    gc["realValue"] = 3.14159;
 
    // Accessing values
    cout << "Integer: " << gc["intValue"].get_int() << endl;
    cout << "String: " << gc["stringValue"].get_string() << endl;
    cout << "Real: " << gc["realValue"].get_real() << endl;
 
    return 0;
}

Example 7: File I/O

This example demonstrates the use of file I/O with GenericContainer to read and print formatted data.

#include "GenericContainer.hh"
#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>
 
using namespace std;
 
int main() {
    GenericContainer gc;
    ifstream file("data_example.txt");
 
    if (file.fail()) {
        cerr << "Error opening file!" << endl;
        return 1;
    }
 
    gc.readFormattedData(file, "#", "\t ");
    gc.dump(cout);  // Print contents
 
    return 0;
}

Example 8: Matrix Operations

This example shows how to create and manipulate a matrix using GenericContainer.

#include "GenericContainer.hh"
#include <iostream>
 
using namespace std;
 
int main() {
    GenericContainer gc;
    gc.set_mat_real(3, 3);  // Create a 3x3 matrix
 
    // Assigning values to the matrix
    gc.get_real_at(0, 0) = 1.0;
    gc.get_real_at(1, 1) = 2.0;
    gc.get_real_at(2, 2) = 3.0;
 
    // Display matrix contents
    cout << "Matrix contents:" << endl;
    for (int i = 0; i < 3; ++i) {
        for (int j = 0; j < 3; ++j) {
            cout << gc.get_real_at(i, j) << " ";
        }
        cout << endl;
    }
 
    return 0;
}

Example 9: Advanced Serialization

This example illustrates advanced serialization and deserialization of GenericContainer.

#include "GenericContainer.hh"
#include <iostream>
#include <vector>
 
using namespace std;
 
int main() {
    GenericContainer gc;
    gc["item1"] = 45.67;
    gc["item2"] = "OpenAI";
 
    // Serialize the GenericContainer
    int sz = gc.mem_size();
    vector<uint8_t> buffer(sz);
    gc.serialize(sz, buffer.data());
 
    // Deserialize into a new GenericContainer
    GenericContainer gc_new;
    gc_new.de_serialize(sz, buffer.data());
 
    cout << "Deserialized Item1: " << gc_new["item1"].get_real() << endl;
    cout << "Deserialized Item2: " << gc_new["item2"].get_string() << endl;
 
    return 0;
}

Example 10: Data Manipulation from Files

This example demonstrates reading formatted data from a file and displaying it using GenericContainer.

#include "GenericContainer.hh"
#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>
 
using namespace std;
 
int main() {
    cout << "\n\n\n"
         << "***********************\n"
         << "      Example N.10     \n"
         << "***********************\n\n";
 
    try {
        GenericContainer gc1, gc2, gc3, gc4, pars;
 
        // Reading formatted data from a file
        gc1.readFormattedData("examples/example10_data.txt");
        gc2.readFormattedData2("examples/example10_data.txt", "#", " \t", &pars);
        gc2.to_gc(gc3);
        gc4.from_gc(gc2);
 
        // Print contents of the GenericContainers
        cout << "GC1 --------------------------\n";
        gc1.print(cout);
        cout << "GC2 --------------------------\n";
        gc2.print(cout);
        cout << "PARS --------------------------\n";
        pars.print(cout);
        cout << "GC2 COPY ----------------------\n";
        gc3.print(cout);
        cout << "GC2 COPY2 ---------------------\n";
        gc4.print(cout);
    } catch (std::exception &exc) {
        cout << exc.what() << '\n';
    } catch (...) {
        cout << "Unknown error\n";
    }
 
    cout << "ALL DONE!\n\n\n\n";
 
    return 0;
}