Vector::size S32?

#1 "Vectors" are a helpful data-type which are used throughout Torque 3D. For example, many fields in the World Editor take numeric values in sets of 3 or 4. These are stored as strings and interpreted as "vectors".

U16 = unsigned short
U32 = unsigned int
S16 = signed short
S32 = signed int
F32 = float
F64 = double

signed: -32768 to 32767
unsigned: 0 to 65535



I'm just beginning to work with scripting. The paragraph was in the manual.
wouldn't you get a wrong value returned if you couldn't get the negative values?

#2 @Scott,
Gerald is referring to the C++ Vector class in tVector.h. The Vector class is a template class that can take any data type defined in C++.

// A vector of S32
Vector<S32> S32nums;
// A vector of ShapeBase objects.
Vector<ShapeBase> sbObjects;

@Gerald,
I think it is a mistake. It should be a U32 if it can allocate U32 elements.

#3 I agree - a Vector template should never have a negative size. You'll find stuff like that throughout the engine though - drives me nuts.

#4 That's what I figure as well, just hoping if there *is* some reason it was done that somebody can enlighten me before I go too far ;)

I'm going through and fixing all/most of the warnings (when warnings are not disabled) again, and one of the biggest source of warnings is what seems like a completely haphazard use of S32 and U32. And in several places F32 is actually used as an integer.

#5 I'm glad you posted this. Now help me understand why this is obvious to everyone here except me? But try to keep it in Layman terms. =)

#6 @Scott - a "Vector" in this case is a sort of managed array, it's simply a collection of values. The "size" method of a Vector returns the number of elements in the array. Having a size of -1 would be similar to having a carton of eggs with -1 eggs in it, it's typically not a very logical scenario to have a negative number of elements in an array ;)

The values stored in the Vector can be signed values (or any other type of value), but the size of the vector should never be less than 0.

#7 Now that makes sense to me. I won't explain what I was thinking originally.. I wouldn't want to confuse the forum reader.
But since you explained it, I get it. =)