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An array is a data structure that contains many variables, which are accessed through computed indices. An index is the location of the variable stored in an array. The variables contained in an array are also called the elements of the array. The array always stores elements of the same data type.
The rank of an array is its number of dimensions. Accessing an individual element requires one index for each dimension. An array with a rank of one is called a single-dimensional array. An array with a rank greater than one is called a multidimensional array. Specific-sized multidimensional arrays are often referred to as two-dimensional arrays, three-dimensional arrays, and so on. Each dimension has a positive integer length. The maximum number of dimensions is 10, and the total number of elements in all dimensions is 1,000,000.
The length of a dimension determines the valid range of indices for that dimension. For a dimension of length N, valid indices range from 1 through N, inclusive. The total number of elements in an array is the product of the lengths of each dimension. AL doesn't support zero-length array dimensions.
Syntax
The syntax for declaring an array of a specific type is the following:
array [Dimension] of Type;
The Dimension is a comma-delimited list of integer literals greater than 0, where each integer defines the number of elements in that dimension.
The Type is the element type of the array.
Code example
The following code sample shows the declaration of an array with a simple element type.
arrayOfInteger: array [10] of Integer;
The following code sample shows the declaration of an array with an element type of a fixed length.
arrayOfCode: array [10] of Code[20];
arrayOfText: array [10] of Text[20];
The following code sample shows the declaration of an array with a complex element type.
arrayOfCodeunits: array [10] of Codeunit "Type Helper";
arrayOfQueries: array [10] of Query "Sales Opportunities";
arrayOfTemporaryRecords: array [10] of Record "Shipment Method" temporary;
arrayOfJsonObjects: array [10] of JsonObject;
Methods
The following AL methods for arrays are available:
ArrayLen method
CompressArray method
CopyArray method
Array of temporary records
The following code sample shows the declaration of an array of temporary Item records:
itemRecArrayTemp: array[2] of Record Item temporary;
In this case, each array element contains a temporary Item record that references the same temporary table. An insert into itemRecArrayTemp[1] is also reflected in itemRecArrayTemp[2].
This is the same behavior as using Copy(RecordRef [, Boolean]) with the ShareTable parameter set to true.