I have a 2-D array:

int[5][5] data =
	[
		[1, 0, 1, 0, 0],
		[1, 0, 1, 0, 0],
		[1, 0, 1, 1, 1],
		[1, 0, 0, 1, 0],
		[1, 1, 1, 1, 0]
	];


1 - Is there a way to foreach vertically through that? (that is, rotated 90 degrees from the usual iteration.)

2 - Is there a way to send that "vertical slice" to a function?

int count_numbers(){/*...*/}

count_numbers(data[0]); //horizontal sum of array[0][0..$-1] WORKS.
count_numbers(data[][0]); //vertical sum of array[0..$-1][0] HYPOTHETICAL

I'm working on an RLE encoding function and I need both vertical and horizontal strips. It just occurred to me that the problem is essentially the same, if you can "transpose" the matrix.

Oh geez, did I just realize what I need? some sort of matrix transpose function? I found this post;

https://forum.dlang.org/post/na8ikk$2ojo$1@digitalmars.com

The problem is though, even if I use [][], instead of [5][5] (or try using his conversion function), I can call transposed... but I can't call my function with it!

void run_rle3(int [] a){/*...*/}

	run_rle3(data[0]); //works
	run_rle3(data.transposed[0]); //nope [see error below]
	run_rle3(data[0].transposed); //nope (didn't expect this to)
	run_rle3((data.transposed)[0]); //nope [see error below]

Error: function dmap.run_rle3 (int[] a) is not callable using argument types (Transversal!(int[][], cast(TransverseOptions)0))

On Tuesday, 9 October 2018 at 10:52:47 UTC, Chris Katko wrote:
> I have a 2-D array:
>
> int[5][5] data =
> 	[
> 		[1, 0, 1, 0, 0],
> 		[1, 0, 1, 0, 0],
> 		[1, 0, 1, 1, 1],
> 		[1, 0, 0, 1, 0],
> 		[1, 1, 1, 1, 0]
> 	];
>
>
> 1 - Is there a way to foreach vertically through that? (that is, rotated 90 degrees from the usual iteration.)
>
> 2 - Is there a way to send that "vertical slice" to a function?
>
> int count_numbers(){/*...*/}
>
> count_numbers(data[0]); //horizontal sum of array[0][0..$-1] WORKS.
> count_numbers(data[][0]); //vertical sum of array[0..$-1][0] HYPOTHETICAL
>
> I'm working on an RLE encoding function and I need both vertical and horizontal strips. It just occurred to me that the problem is essentially the same, if you can "transpose" the matrix.
>
> Oh geez, did I just realize what I need? some sort of matrix transpose function? I found this post;
>
> https://forum.dlang.org/post/na8ikk$2ojo$1@digitalmars.com
>
> The problem is though, even if I use [][], instead of [5][5] (or try using his conversion function), I can call transposed... but I can't call my function with it!
>
> void run_rle3(int [] a){/*...*/}
>
> 	run_rle3(data[0]); //works
> 	run_rle3(data.transposed[0]); //nope [see error below]
> 	run_rle3(data[0].transposed); //nope (didn't expect this to)
> 	run_rle3((data.transposed)[0]); //nope [see error below]
>
> Error: function dmap.run_rle3 (int[] a) is not callable using argument types (Transversal!(int[][], cast(TransverseOptions)0))

So according to this:

https://dlang.org/library/std/range/transposed.html

It's trying to take my [0] as an argument for the TransverseOptions variable? But even if I wrap it in parenthesis, it still takes it! (See the last line of code.)

auto taco = (data.transposed);
run_rle3(taco); //same error, but <-------- HERE?

On Tuesday, 9 October 2018 at 10:52:47 UTC, Chris Katko wrote:
> I have a 2-D array:
>
> 1 - Is there a way to foreach vertically through that? (that is, rotated 90 degrees from the usual iteration.)
>
> 2 - Is there a way to send that "vertical slice" to a function?

Not built-in in the language, no.

> I'm working on an RLE encoding function and I need both vertical and horizontal strips. It just occurred to me that the problem is essentially the same, if you can "transpose" the matrix.

It may be the same on paper, but not in memory.

> Oh geez, did I just realize what I need? some sort of matrix transpose function? I found this post;
>
> The problem is though, even if I use [][], instead of [5][5] (or try using his conversion function), I can call transposed... but I can't call my function with it!
>
> void run_rle3(int [] a){/*...*/}
>
> 	run_rle3(data[0]); //works
> 	run_rle3(data.transposed[0]); //nope [see error below]
> 	run_rle3(data[0].transposed); //nope (didn't expect this to)
> 	run_rle3((data.transposed)[0]); //nope [see error below]
>
> Error: function dmap.run_rle3 (int[] a) is not callable using argument types (Transversal!(int[][], cast(TransverseOptions)0))

That's because your `run_rle3` function takes an `int[]`, which is a contiguous slice of ints. `transposed` does not return an `int[]`, it returns a lazy range (i.e. a struct with a range interface). Moreover, the range that `transposed` returns isn't even random-access, even though the source may be.
If you don't need random access and are just iterating over all elements, you can just change the signature of `run_rle3` to:

void run_rle3(R)(auto ref R a) { /* ... */ }

However, I'd first think hard about doing this. Iterating "vertically" you essentially skip (N-1) elements on each iteration, elements that would still be pulled into the CPU cache only to be ignored. If you're going to be iterating over every column this way, it may be more efficient to just eagerly transpose the whole array and use it as an array without any extra "transposed" abstractions.

On Tuesday, 9 October 2018 at 10:52:47 UTC, Chris Katko wrote:
> I have a 2-D array:
>
> int[5][5] data =
> 	[
> 		[1, 0, 1, 0, 0],
> 		[1, 0, 1, 0, 0],
> 		[1, 0, 1, 1, 1],
> 		[1, 0, 0, 1, 0],
> 		[1, 1, 1, 1, 0]
> 	];
>
>
> 1 - Is there a way to foreach vertically through that? (that is, rotated 90 degrees from the usual iteration.)
>
> 2 - Is there a way to send that "vertical slice" to a function?
>
> [snip]

mir has a lot of functionality that can be helpful here, byDim [1] comes to mind. Of course it also has transposed, but you can combine byDim with count to achieve the same thing as what you're trying.

http://docs.algorithm.dlang.io/latest/mir_ndslice_topology.html#.byDim