Arrays are useful for holding multiple values with the same variable name. Say for example you wanted to keep track of the weight of 30 people in your class. Using normal variables, you'd need 30 variables to keep track of all this information, and it'd be hard to keep track of them. A better way is to use an array to store this information.
Now, here's how an array works...
First you must
dimension your array. This means you tell the computer how many items of data you think you'll need. Like this:
dim MyArray(29)
That will hold 30 items of data. (The computer starts counting at 0)
Now, to store information in this array, you simply assign the value to the array just like you would with a variable. Example:
MyArray(0)="First item of data"
MyArray(1)="Second item of data"
MyArray(2)="Third item of data"
etc.
Now, what's really useful about arrays is you can use them with loops to easily extract all the data from it. I don't know if you've studied loops yet, but here's a quick example. Suppose now that you've filled all 30 "slots" of your array with data. Now you can se a "for/next" loop to easily print all that data to the screen.
for x=0 to 29 :`our counter variable
print MyArray(x)
next x
Now all the information held in that array will be printed to the screen. See how much easier that is than going "print Myvariable1, Print MyVariable 2" etc.
If you can understand all this, then I will continue the lesson with multidimensional arrays. If this is too confusing, lemme know, and I'll try to explain it better.
Cheers and happy coding with DB.
