array info request (was: Re: Rant Re Rev Documentation)

[keith]

Sometime around 25/7/05 (at 01:19 -0400) Thomas McGrath III said:

>I always learn best by example.

Absolutely!
Speaking of learning by example (or any other method, I'm not fussy! 
;-) is there anything around that could help me get my head around 
arrays? Some kind of simple guide that doesn't start out at too high 
a level? Gotta start sometime! :-)

I've made a bit of headway by dissecting and rebuilding a few simple 
things from past threads in this list, so I can put the contents of a 
set of fields into a line in an array in a card's user property and 
then pull specific elements (items?) back out again.


What I'm wondering is whether arrays would be a useful way to store 
data which is to be accessed by more than one person across a 
network? There're perhaps 30 different fields and popup menus, and 
some of the fields will contain a few paragraphs of text each. (Yes, 
paragraphs. So returns have to be accepted in the data, in case that 
makes any difference.)

I had been experimenting with using a text file on a networked 
computer (as suggested here), with the first item on each line 
flagging whether it could be edited or not. Editing a record involves 
reading the record, parsing the data into fields, making the changes 
there, then writing it all back out to the same record again.

I'm hoping to add search abilities, and I wondered if using a data 
array might be more efficient... but I'm definitely fairly in the 
dark about these structures!

I presume an array is a kind of data structure that has to be stored 
in a stack in some way, perhaps as a user property? It seems to be 
layered in a more complex dimensional way than can be represented in 
a flat text file. Or am I assuming more complications than there 
actually are?

k

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