From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me
X-Spam-Level: 
X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,FREEMAIL_FROM
	autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4
X-Google-Thread: 103376,f31af493775a063b
X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,domainid0,public,usenet
X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit
Path: 
 g2news1.google.com!news2.google.com!border1.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!local02.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.comcast.com!news.comcast.com.POSTED!not-for-mail
NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 17 May 2008 09:16:52 -0500
From: "Steve" <nospam_steved94@comcast.net>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
References: <b60e9537-ab45-4856-99de-71127208813f@56g2000hsm.googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: Question about arrays and no. of elements
Date: Sat, 17 May 2008 07:20:17 -0700
X-Priority: 3
X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2900.3138
X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.3198
X-RFC2646: Format=Flowed; Original
Message-ID: <XbidnR9q6vJJdbPVnZ2dnUVZ_hKdnZ2d@comcast.com>
X-Usenet-Provider: http://www.giganews.com
NNTP-Posting-Host: 24.20.111.206
X-Trace: 
 sv3-14KDJJdGHLsi4aa3IUTDqeBCx+y6CCRD7otJC4H+zFyXRUC8OnmrHZcZpC1Ex5wF+25ErIvuxQ+AWJP!olbQyVGWVA6key1YUIaRtLwNs4rUyr0s9YaWhYmv2zaJBycanzQsUZgwCSFbZlENdDw7gy+aSy3E!FA+MTTZqtJmG7g9TpEqm5PLhRDLqcA==
X-Complaints-To: abuse@comcast.net
X-DMCA-Complaints-To: dmca@comcast.net
X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Please be sure to forward a copy of ALL headers
X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Otherwise we will be unable to process your complaint
 properly
X-Postfilter: 1.3.39
Xref: g2news1.google.com comp.lang.ada:156
Date: 2008-05-17T07:20:17-07:00
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>

<amal.alphonse@gmail.com> wrote in message 
news:b60e9537-ab45-4856-99de-71127208813f@56g2000hsm.googlegroups.com...
> If I define an array with say a million elements, and I only put data
> in 10 of them, is it actually a waste of space/time with the array or
> does Ada only create elements when there is data to put in (so it is
> efficient)?

Generally if you define an array with a million elements, most compiled 
languages (including Ada) will allocate memory for the array, which a waste 
of space, but not of time.

After the array is allocated, references to elements are just memory 
references which are fast.

Also note:
  Unlike some other programming languages, you may define the size of the 
array at run time, if you know the size of the array prior to use:

    type My_Array_Type is array( Positive range <> ) of Integer;
    ...
    num_elements : Positive;
    begin
        num_elements := GetNumElements;
        declare
            my_array_instance : My_Array_Type( 1 .. num_elements );
        begin
            ...
        end;

Regards
Steve
(The Duck)