None of the provided examples here work for the generic case, which are N dimensional matrices. Anything using "rows" assumes theres columns and rows only, a 4 dimensional matrix might have more.
Here is some example code copying a non-continuous N-dimensional matrix into a continuous memory stream - then converts it back into a Cv::Mat
#include <iostream>
#include <cstdint>
#include <cstring>
#include <opencv2/opencv.hpp>
int main(int argc, char**argv)
{
if ( argc != 2 )
{
std::cerr << "Usage: " << argv[0] << " <Image_Path>\n";
return -1;
}
cv::Mat origSource = cv::imread(argv[1],1);
if (!origSource.data) {
std::cerr << "Can't read image";
return -1;
}
// this will select a subsection of the original source image - WITHOUT copying the data
// (the header will point to a region of interest, adjusting data pointers and row step sizes)
cv::Mat sourceMat = origSource(cv::Range(origSource.size[0]/4,(3*origSource.size[0])/4),cv::Range(origSource.size[1]/4,(3*origSource.size[1])/4));
// correctly copy the contents of an N dimensional cv::Mat
// works just as fast as copying a 2D mat, but has much more difficult to read code :)
// see http://stackoverflow.com/questions/18882242/how-do-i-get-the-size-of-a-multi-dimensional-cvmat-mat-or-matnd
// copy this code in your own cvMat_To_Char_Array() function which really OpenCV should provide somehow...
// keep in mind that even Mat::clone() aligns each row at a 4 byte boundary, so uneven sized images always have stepgaps
size_t totalsize = sourceMat.step[sourceMat.dims-1];
const size_t rowsize = sourceMat.step[sourceMat.dims-1] * sourceMat.size[sourceMat.dims-1];
size_t coordinates[sourceMat.dims-1] = {0};
std::cout << "Image dimensions: ";
for (int t=0;t<sourceMat.dims;t++)
{
// calculate total size of multi dimensional matrix by multiplying dimensions
totalsize*=sourceMat.size[t];
std::cout << (t>0?" X ":"") << sourceMat.size[t];
}
// Allocate destination image buffer
uint8_t * imagebuffer = new uint8_t[totalsize];
size_t srcptr=0,dptr=0;
std::cout << std::endl;
std::cout << "One pixel in image has " << sourceMat.step[sourceMat.dims-1] << " bytes" <<std::endl;
std::cout << "Copying data in blocks of " << rowsize << " bytes" << std::endl ;
std::cout << "Total size is " << totalsize << " bytes" << std::endl;
while (dptr<totalsize) {
// we copy entire rows at once, so lowest iterator is always [dims-2]
// this is legal since OpenCV does not use 1 dimensional matrices internally (a 1D matrix is a 2d matrix with only 1 row)
std::memcpy(&imagebuffer[dptr],&(((uint8_t*)sourceMat.data)[srcptr]),rowsize);
// destination matrix has no gaps so rows follow each other directly
dptr += rowsize;
// src matrix can have gaps so we need to calculate the address of the start of the next row the hard way
// see *brief* text in opencv2/core/mat.hpp for address calculation
coordinates[sourceMat.dims-2]++;
srcptr = 0;
for (int t=sourceMat.dims-2;t>=0;t--) {
if (coordinates[t]>=sourceMat.size[t]) {
if (t==0) break;
coordinates[t]=0;
coordinates[t-1]++;
}
srcptr += sourceMat.step[t]*coordinates[t];
}
}
// this constructor assumes that imagebuffer is gap-less (if not, a complete array of step sizes must be given, too)
cv::Mat destination=cv::Mat(sourceMat.dims, sourceMat.size, sourceMat.type(), (void*)imagebuffer);
// and just to proof that sourceImage points to the same memory as origSource, we strike it through
cv::line(sourceMat,cv::Point(0,0),cv::Point(sourceMat.size[1],sourceMat.size[0]),CV_RGB(255,0,0),3);
cv::imshow("original image",origSource);
cv::imshow("partial image",sourceMat);
cv::imshow("copied image",destination);
while (cv::waitKey(60)!='q');
}