Re: Dynamic Arrays

[Gary Guthrie <garyguthrie@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Regarding the efficiency of array processing... Things have changed
since the early days. Sequenced (ascend/descend) arrays no longer use
sequential lookup. They instead take advantage of binary search, a
pretty darn fast mechanism.

Regarding the use of files... There is considerable associated overhead.
User index is a much more efficient approach and I see that Steve here
sometimes uses them, too. The user index approach takes care of the need
to redimension and in an efficient manner.

Gary Guthrie



Steve Landess wrote:
>
> I am total agreement with you, Booth.  IIRC, array processing is one of the
> most inefficient things that you can do in an RPG program.
>
> I don't see a reason to use such a large array in a program.  I typically
> use a user index or create a work file in QTEMP with the necessary PF keys
> and/or LGL files to process the data when the number of elements gets very
> large.  It may take a little more code, but using one of these techniques is
> much more efficient than using a large array.  Plus, using a work file is
> definitely dynamic, since you can specify SIZE(*NOMAX) when creating the
> file.