How to pick all struct instance?

[Flux]

As of now, what I did was to keep track of the max Instance and used

set tempStruct = this         //temporarily store current instance
loop
    exitwhen i > maxInstance
    set this = i
    //Do Struct actions here
    //.....
    //end struct actions
    set i = i + 1
endloop
set this = tempStruct        //restore current instance

But it feels inefficient and I can't figure out how to keep track of the max Instance.

Now, if there is a better way to pick all struct instance, please let me know, if not then how can I keep track of the maxInstace? On allocation, I used:

set i = this
if i > maxInstance then
    set maxInstance = i
endif

but in deallocation, how will the maxInstance change? The method I currently have in mind is keep decrementing maxInstance and checking if a certain member is null or not. If it is not null, then that is the maxInstance but again, I feel there is a better way to do that.

 

[btdonald]

Linked list.

 

[Nestharus]

Here

http://www.csanimated.com/animation.php?t=Linked_list

vJASS linked list resources too

 

[btdonald]

Here

http://www.csanimated.com/animation.php?t=Linked_list

vJASS linked list resources too

Yohooooo, that was what I mentioned.

 

[Dr Super Good]

A linked list member would work.

Basically the struct is given a member variable of a reference to another struct.instance of its type. A static struct reference member keeps track of the head of the list. When allocation occurs you set the member to point at the head of the list and the head of the list to point at the newly allocated instance. When destruction occurs you search down from the head until you find the instance being destroyed and then set the reference member of the instance above it to point at what that member of the being destroyed instance points to. Fast allocation, slower destruction.

An improvement is to have two struct reference members in the struct for each direction to form a doubly linked list. This makes insertion and deletion slightly more complicated but solves the inefficiency with deletion (no searching for the instance being removed).

Ideally this linked list functionality should be implemented as an extendable or implementable struct component or even a macro. That would mean one implementation could be easily used for any number of different struct types to have them joined in a linked list.

 

[Flux]

Ok then, it looks like linked list is the best way. Thanks guys.
I already have been using linked list by Nestharus in the past but I just thought there is a simpler way to pick all struct without the need of a required system.