FTMutableObjectArray is a mutable array class to which objects can be added, removed, replaced and accessed according to their index in the array.

Fortran has pointers to arrays, but not arrays of pointers. To do the latter, one creates a wrapper derived type and creates an array of that wrapper type. Fortran arrays are great, but they are of fixed length, and they don't easily implement reference counting to keep track of memory. For that, we have the FTMutableObjectArray. Performance reasons dictate that you will use regular arrays for numeric types and the like, but for generic objects we would use an Object Array.

You initialize a FTMutableObjectArray with the number of objects that you expect it to hold. However, it can re-size itself if necessary. To be efficient, it adds more than one entry at a time given by the ``chunkSize'', which you can choose for yourself. (The default is 10.)

Definition

       TYPE(FTMutableObjectArray) :: array

Usage

Initialization

  CLASS(FTMutableObjectArray)  :: array
  INTEGER                      :: N = 11
  CALL array % initWithSize(N)

Destruction

       CALL array  %  destuct() [Non Pointers]
       call release(array) [Pointers]

Adding an Object

       TYPE(FTObject) :: obj
       obj => r1
       CALL array % addObject(obj)

Removing an Object

       TYPE(FTObject) :: obj
       CALL array % removeObjectAtIndex(i)

Accessing an Object

       TYPE(FTObject) :: obj
       obj => array % objectAtIndex(i)

Replacing an Object

       TYPE(FTObject) :: obj
       obj => r1
       CALL array % replaceObjectAtIndexWithObject(i,obj)

Setting the Chunk Size

       CALL array % setChunkSize(size)

Finding The Number Of Items In The Array

       n =  array % count()

Finding The Actual Allocated Size Of The Array

       n =  array % allocatedSize()