Arrays are an essential part of programming, allowing you to store and manipulate collections of data efficiently. Sheerpower supports arrays of reals, strings, and booleans. By default, Sheerpower arrays are one-origin, meaning the first element of an array is element number one. However, you can change this to zero-origin using the option base 0 statement.
1. Declaring Arrays
To define an array in Sheerpower, you use the dim statement. Let's start by declaring a simple array of numbers.
dim ages(5) // five reals: 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5
dim names$(5) // five string elements.
ages(1) = 25
ages(2) = 30
ages(3) = 45
ages(4) = 50
ages(5) = 60
names$(1) = "Alice"
names$(2) = "Bob"
names$(3) = "Charlie"
names$(4) = "Diana"
names$(5) = "Eve"
print "Age of Alice: "; ages(1)
print "Name of person with age 45: "; names$(3)
Instructions: Click the COPY button above to paste the code into the text area, and then click RUN to execute the code. This program declares an array of ages and an array of names, assigns values to them, and prints some of the values.
2. Multi-Dimensional Arrays
Sheerpower also supports multi-dimensional arrays. These are useful when you need to store data in a table-like structure. For example, let's create an array that represents the hours worked each day of the week.
dim ages(5) // five reals: 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5
dim names$(5) // five string elements.
ages(1) = 25
ages(2) = 30
ages(3) = 45
ages(4) = 50
ages(5) = 60
names$(1) = "Alice"
names$(2) = "Bob"
names$(3) = "Charlie"
names$(4) = "Diana"
names$(5) = "Eve"
print "Age of Alice: "; ages(1)
print "Name of person with age 45: "; names$(3)
dim weekly_hours(7, 24) // 7 days a week, 24 hours a day
// Assign random hours for each day
for day = 1 to 7
for hour = 1 to 24
weekly_hours(day, hour) = rnd(8)
next hour
next day
// Print hours worked on the first day of the week
print "Hours worked on Monday:"
for hour = 1 to 24
print "Hour "; hour; ": "; weekly_hours(1, hour)
next hour
Instructions: Click the COPY button above to paste the code
into the text area, and then click RUN to execute the code. This program creates a
two-dimensional array to represent hours worked each day of the week and assigns random values to it.
3. Resizing Arrays
You can increase the size of an existing array using the redim
statement, which is particularly useful when your program requires the array
to grow dynamically. When you resize an array with redim, the
existing data remains intact, and additional elements are added to the array
as needed. For example, if you resize an array from 5 to 10 elements, the
original 5 elements will be preserved, and 5 new elements will be created,
though these new elements will be uninitialized.
dim ages(5) // five reals: 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5
dim names$(5) // five string elements.
ages(1) = 25
ages(2) = 30
ages(3) = 45
ages(4) = 50
ages(5) = 60
names$(1) = "Alice"
names$(2) = "Bob"
names$(3) = "Charlie"
names$(4) = "Diana"
names$(5) = "Eve"
print "Age of Alice: "; ages(1)
print "Name of person with age 45: "; names$(3)
dim weekly_hours(7, 24) // 7 days a week, 24 hours a day
// Assign random hours for each day
for day = 1 to 7
for hour = 1 to 24
weekly_hours(day, hour) = rnd(8)
next hour
next day
// Print hours worked on the first day of the week
print "Hours worked on Monday:"
for hour = 1 to 24
print "Hour "; hour; ": "; weekly_hours(1, hour)
next hour
max_ages = 5
dim ages(max_ages) // five reals: 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5
max_ages = 10
redim ages(max_ages) // Now we have 10 elements
ages(6) = 65
ages(7) = 70
print "New age added: "; ages(6)
Instructions: Click the COPY button above to paste the code into the text area, and then click RUN to execute the code. This code demonstrates how to resize an array using the redim statement.
4. Dynamically Expanding Arrays
If you don't know the size of the array you need beforehand, you can create a dynamically expanding array. This allows the array to grow as needed during the program's execution.
dim ages(5) // five reals: 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5
dim names$(5) // five string elements.
ages(1) = 25
ages(2) = 30
ages(3) = 45
ages(4) = 50
ages(5) = 60
names$(1) = "Alice"
names$(2) = "Bob"
names$(3) = "Charlie"
names$(4) = "Diana"
names$(5) = "Eve"
print "Age of Alice: "; ages(1)
print "Name of person with age 45: "; names$(3)
dim weekly_hours(7, 24) // 7 days a week, 24 hours a day
// Assign random hours for each day
for day = 1 to 7
for hour = 1 to 24
weekly_hours(day, hour) = rnd(8)
next hour
next day
// Print hours worked on the first day of the week
print "Hours worked on Monday:"
for hour = 1 to 24
print "Hour "; hour; ": "; weekly_hours(1, hour)
next hour
max_ages = 5
dim ages(max_ages) // five reals: 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5
max_ages = 10
redim ages(max_ages) // Now we have 10 elements
ages(6) = 65
ages(7) = 70
print "New age added: "; ages(6)
dim cash(0) // this is how we declare a dynamically expanding array
cash(0) = 10.99
cash(1) = 20.50
print 'Cash elements:'; size(cash)
Instructions: Click the COPY button above to paste the code into the text area, and then click RUN to execute the code. This code shows how to create a dynamically expanding array and add elements to it.
5. Rolling Dice Using Arrays
Let's put everything we've learned so far together in a fun example. We'll create an array to represent rolling five dice and print the value of each die.
dim ages(5) // five reals: 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5
dim names$(5) // five string elements.
ages(1) = 25
ages(2) = 30
ages(3) = 45
ages(4) = 50
ages(5) = 60
names$(1) = "Alice"
names$(2) = "Bob"
names$(3) = "Charlie"
names$(4) = "Diana"
names$(5) = "Eve"
print "Age of Alice: "; ages(1)
print "Name of person with age 45: "; names$(3)
dim weekly_hours(7, 24) // 7 days a week, 24 hours a day
// Assign random hours for each day
for day = 1 to 7
for hour = 1 to 24
weekly_hours(day, hour) = rnd(8)
next hour
next day
// Print hours worked on the first day of the week
print "Hours worked on Monday:"
for hour = 1 to 24
print "Hour "; hour; ": "; weekly_hours(1, hour)
next hour
max_ages = 5
dim ages(max_ages) // five reals: 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5
max_ages = 10
redim ages(max_ages) // Now we have 10 elements
ages(6) = 65
ages(7) = 70
print "New age added: "; ages(6)
dim cash(0) // this is how we declare a dynamically expanding array
cash(0) = 10.99
cash(1) = 20.50
print 'Cash elements:'; size(cash)
dim dice(5) // five dice
for idx = 1 to 5
dice(idx) = rnd(6) // assign each die a random number between 1 and 6
print 'dice#'; idx; ' value '; dice(idx)
next idx
Instructions: Click the COPY button above to paste the code into the text area, and then click RUN to execute the code. This program simulates rolling five dice and displays the value of each die.
Conclusion
In this lesson, you've learned how to work with arrays in Sheerpower, including how to declare, resize, and dynamically expand arrays. Arrays are a powerful tool for managing collections of data, and they are essential for writing efficient and effective programs. Keep practicing to master arrays and take your Sheerpower programming skills to the next level!
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