Saving memory by using dynamic arrays

The language supports both static arrays and dynamic arrays. For compatibility reasons, static arrays must be allocated in their entirety. This can result in huge memory usage when big structures are declared, such as:

DEFINE arr_cust ARRAY[5000] OF RECORD
      id INTEGER,
      shipcode CHAR(5),
      name CHAR(50),
      address CHAR(200)
END RECORD

If possible, replace such static arrays with dynamic arrays, and consider using VARCHAR for large character string fields:

DEFINE arr_cust DYNAMIC ARRAY OF RECORD
      id INTEGER,
      shipcode CHAR(5),
      name VARCHAR(50),
      address VARCHAR(200)
END RECORD

However, be aware that dynamic arrays have a slightly different behavior than static arrays.