Arduino restarts when a function is called

Question

When I call a function, get_split(), the Arduino restarts. I have tried to find what is causing this, but I have had no luck. Here is my code:

std::vector<std::vector<std::vector<std::vector<float>>>> get_split(std::vector< std::vector< float > >& dataset) {
  std::vector<int> class_values; // declares vector 'class_values'
  for (int i = 0; i < dataset.size(); i++) { // loops through each value in dataset (the dataset contains vectors)  and appends the last value in each vector to class_values
    class_values.push_back(dataset[i][dataset.size()]);
  }
  std::vector<std::vector<std::vector<float>>> b_index;
  b_index.push_back(std::vector<std::vector<float>>(999));
  std::vector<std::vector<std::vector<float>>> b_value;
  b_value.push_back(std::vector<std::vector<float>>(999));
  std::vector<std::vector<std::vector<float>>> b_score;
  b_score.push_back(std::vector<std::vector<float>>(999));
  std::vector<std::vector<std::vector<float>>> b_groups;
  for (int i = 0; i < dataset[0].size(); i++) {
    for (int j = 0; j < dataset.size(); j++) {
      std::vector<std::vector<std::vector<float>>> groups = test_split(i,  dataset[j][i], dataset); // gets the split of the dataset (assigns each vector in the dataset to either 'left' or 'right')
      float gini = gini_index(class_values, groups); // calculates the gini
      if (gini < b_score[0][0][0]) {
        b_index[0][0][0] = i;
        b_value[0][0][0] = dataset[j][i];
        b_score[0][0][0] = gini;
        b_groups = groups;
      }
    }
  }
  std::vector<std::vector<std::vector<std::vector<float>>>> vals;
  vals.push_back(b_index);
  vals.push_back(b_value);
  vals.push_back(b_groups);
  return vals; // returns the values.
}

This code is meant to check the gini of splitting a certain function (the gini_index() function works fine). Then it calls test_split which assigns the vector values into two sub-vectors in the vector groups, left and right. Then I just choose the split with the lowest gini.

When I delete everything in the function it doesn't restart, but I have deleted the first for loop, and also the part where it returns a vector, but still no luck. Also when deleting the for loop underneath the declaration of b_groups, it still doesn't work. I don't think it is a memory/storage issue because the Arduino IDE says that I'm only using 3% of that.

PS: I have used the library StandardCplusplus library to include vectors.

Answer 1

Your code is very complex and running it in an environment where you have limited debug facilities is making life worse for yourself.

When an Arduino reboots it is usually because it has thrown a memory error. This happens when you try and access memory that is no longer your program's to access (or never was yours). In this case I originally suspected, based on the complexity of your code, that you were accessing a vector element that you could no longer access.

To prove this I 'ran it on a desktop', in my case a Windows 7 box with Visual Studio 2015 (but you could have used Linux, GCC and GDB). This meant I wrote a little wrapper program and stubbed the functions you called. This resulted in the error message shown below.

This is my 'desktop' code:

#include <vector>

std::vector<std::vector<std::vector<float>>> test_split(const int& i, const float& f, std::vector< std::vector< float > >& dataset)
{
    std::vector<std::vector<std::vector<float>>> vals;
    return vals;
}

float gini_index(const std::vector<int>& class_values, const std::vector<std::vector<std::vector<float>>>& group)
{
    return 1.0f;
}

std::vector<std::vector<std::vector<std::vector<float>>>> get_split(std::vector< std::vector< float > >& dataset) {
    std::vector<int> class_values; // declares vector 'class_values'
    for (int i = 0; i < dataset.size(); i++) { // loops through each value in dataset (the dataset contains vectors)  and appends the last value in each vector to class_values
        class_values.push_back(dataset[i][dataset.size()]);
    }
    std::vector<std::vector<std::vector<float>>> b_index;
    b_index.push_back(std::vector<std::vector<float>>(999));
    std::vector<std::vector<std::vector<float>>> b_value;
    b_value.push_back(std::vector<std::vector<float>>(999));
    std::vector<std::vector<std::vector<float>>> b_score;
    b_score.push_back(std::vector<std::vector<float>>(999));
    std::vector<std::vector<std::vector<float>>> b_groups;
    for (int i = 0; i < dataset[0].size(); i++) {
        for (int j = 0; j < dataset.size(); j++) {
            std::vector<std::vector<std::vector<float>>> groups = test_split(i, dataset[j][i], dataset); // gets the split of the dataset (assigns each vector in the dataset to either 'left' or 'right')
            float gini = gini_index(class_values, groups); // calculates the gini
            if (gini < b_score[0][0][0]) {
                b_index[0][0][0] = i;
                b_value[0][0][0] = dataset[j][i];
                b_score[0][0][0] = gini;
                b_groups = groups;
            }
        }
    }
    std::vector<std::vector<std::vector<std::vector<float>>>> vals;
    vals.push_back(b_index);
    vals.push_back(b_value);
    vals.push_back(b_groups);
    return vals; // returns the values.
}

int main(void)
{
    std::vector<std::vector<float>> dataset;

    std::vector<std::vector<std::vector<std::vector<float>>>> result = get_split(dataset);

    return fgetc(stdin);
}

Now you need to workout where it is crashing, easy in Visual Studio but very difficult on an Arduino. However I would look at simplifying the code too.