Re: Anonymous array clarification.

["Samuel T. Harris" <u61783@gsde.hou.us.ray.com>]

McDoobie wrote:
> 
> In Ada one can declare anonymous arrays (an array without a type assigned
> to it.)  However what would such an array be used for, and are the bounds
> on it's use the same as for any other type of array.
> 
> I guess what I'm asking is if I declare an array such as
> 
>         some_array : array(1..N);

This is an illegal type definition and your expection that
this is valid is, I believe, the root of your other questions.

Correct to say ...

   some_array : array (1..n) of character;

... where even anonymous arrays must have the "of <subtype>" element.

> 
> Can I assign values such as '1' '2' '3' 'H' 'y' '-' 'foo' all to the same
> array? And how would  those values be stored in memory? As Hex data with
> thier values revealed according to the  context of the code block they're
> in? How would I tell it to read the data stored in that block as Integers,
> Chars, et...?

Of course, as you can see above, questions about how the
array components are interpreted are moot in that the
anonymous array definition has a specific component type.

As to storage and the other issues, just think of the above
code as equivalent to ...

  type _anonymous_some_array_type_ is array (1..n) of character;
  some_array : anonyous_some_array_type;

... where the type of object some_array is internally
generated, it just has no name explicitly represented
in your source code.

> 
> As a side note, I'll be downloading the source code to GNAT so that I can
> get a better  understanding as to how this all works.
> 
> Any help would be appreciated.
> 
> Thanks
> 
> McDoobie
> 
> chris@dont.spam.me

-- 
Samuel T. Harris, Senior Software Engineer II
Raytheon, Aerospace Engineering Services
"If you can make it, We can fake it!"