Arrays

As shown in Variables, arrays are objects that hold a resizable ordered list of values.

Declaring an array

Arrays can be declared in 2 ways. The first, and more straightfoward way, is using the [] operator. Then you can optionally - between [] - fill the array with the desired values, separating them using a comma.

var myArray = ["H", "a", "t", "c", "h", " ", "E", "n", "g", "i", "n", "e"];
print(myArray);

INFO: ["H", "a", "t", "c", "h", " ", "E", "n", "g", "i", "n", "e"]

Due to the object nature of arrays, it's also possible to create one by calling Array.Create, which takes a length and a initial value as parameters. The initial value gets used to fill the array up to the desired length.

print(Array.Create(4, 9 + 10));

INFO: [19, 19, 19, 19]

Reading & writing to individual values

You can read the value of an item held by an array by typing the array's name then the item's index between []. The first value of an array in HSL will always be 0.

print(myArray[2] + myArray[6] + myArray[1] + myArray[3] + myArray[4] + myArray[9] + myArray[7] + myArray[8] + myArray[5] + myArray[0] + myArray[11] + myArray[10]);

INFO: tEaching Hen

Similarly, you can also set the value by adding the = operator to the end of the above syntax followed by the value you want.

// repeat is a statement that repeats a set of instructions by a specified amount of times. Statements will be explained in the next chapter.
repeat (myArray.Length(), number) {
    // Length() is a method found in the Array object class that returns the number of items present in the array, in this case, 11. Methods will be thoroughly explained in further chapters.
    myArray[number] = myArray[(number + 1) % myArray.Length()];
}
 
print(myArray);

INFO: ["a", "t", "c", "h", " ", "E", "n", "g", "i", "n", "e", "a"]

In both cases, trying to access values greater than or equal to the array's length or below 0 results in an error.

print(myArray[4096]);

ERROR: [...]
 
    Index 4096 is out of bounds of array of size 12.

print(myArray[-32]);

ERROR: [...]
 
    Index -32 is out of bounds of array of size 12.

Inserting & removing items

In this section we'll show a few methods that can be used to insert or remove items inside an array, those being: Array.Push, Array.Pop, Array.Insert, Array.Erase, and Array.Clear. As mentioned previously, methods will be explained in future chapters.

You may find other methods accompanied by explanations in the Array page.

Push & Pop

The Push method can be used to append values to the end of an array.

var myFavoriteNumbers = [0, 8, 16];
myFavoriteNumbers.Push(32);
 
print(myFavoriteNumbers);

INFO: [0, 8, 16, 32]

Pop, on the other hand, removes the last item inside an array, returning the removed value after.

myFavoriteNumbers.Pop();
myFavoriteNumbers.Pop();
 
print(myFavoriteNumbers);

INFO: [0, 8]

Insert & Erase

Insert takes an index and a value as arguments. The value gets appended at the index defined by first argument. Using Insert shifts all the items after the specified index to the right to accomodate the new value.

var dayAction = "Game";
var nightAction = "Engine";
var combination = "Hatch";
 
var encouragement = ["First we ", ", then we ", ". Let\'s ", "!"]; 
 
encouragement.Insert(1, dayAction);
encouragement.Insert(3, nightAction);
encouragement.Insert(5, combination);
 
print(encouragement);

INFO: ["First we ", "Game", ", then we ", "Engine", ". Let's ", "Hatch", "!"]

As a counterpart, Erase removes any value specified in the index argument, shifting all the values after the index to the left.

encouragement.Erase(0);
encouragement.Erase(2);
encouragement.Erase(4);
encouragement.Erase(6);
 
print(encouragement);

INFO: ["Game", Engine", "Hatch"]

Clear

Finally, Clear erases all the elements inside the array.

var competitors = ["Blender", "Scratch", "Doom Engine"];
 
competitors.Clear();
 
print(competitors);

INFO: []