replacing scoped_array with non-contiguous memory in C++

Question

I have a C++ class which is something like

class Block {

...

scoped_array<Columns> columns_

...
}

Now as i understand because of using an array, the memory for Columns array will be contiguous .

Several parts of the code access the elements of this array randomly i.e. columns_[x].

I want to re-factor the code so that contiguous memory is no longer a constraint. Therefore i assume i have to replace the scoped_array with something which is not contagious.

However if i can i don't want to re-factor other code so that the columns_[x] type access is still possible.

Is there a data structure available that i can use here? I suppose i can replace it with C++ list but then i will lose the columns_[x] style access. is there any data-structure in boost i can use instead which doesn't require contiguous memory?

Answer 1

std::deque provides almost the same methods as a vector but does not have a restriction of keeping data contiguous in memory.

(based on an earlier comment suggesting deque)