DICTIONARY

Syntax

DICTIONARY [ attributes-list ] OF type-specification

1. type-specification can be one of:
   • A primitive type
   • A record definition
   • An array definition
   • A dictionary definition
   • A function type definition
   • The name of a user defined type
   • The name of a built-in class
   • The name of an imported extension class
   • The name of an imported Java class
2. attributes-list is a comma-separated list of name = value pairs or name attributes, and defines attributes for the dictionary type.

Usage

A dictionary defines an associative array of unordered elements, accessed by a key.

Dictionary variables can invoke methods specific to the dictionary types.

The elements of the dictionary can be of a simple type, or structured records.

DEFINE dict DICTIONARY OF STRING

The dictionary subscript syntax consists of a character string expression (the key), specified between square brackets.

The result of the subscript syntax can be used as l-value (as target variable in assignments):

LET dict["abcdef"] = "the value"

or as r-value (in expressions):

DISPLAY dict["abcdef"]

Dictionary elements are automatically created when needed. For more details, see Dictionary in action.