Re: array question

["David C. Hoos, Sr." <david.c.hoos.sr@ada95.com>]

bill@nospam.com wrote in message <7819qk$cbj@drn.newsguy.com>...
>In article <78189o$2bj@eng-ser1.erg.cuhk.edu.hk>, ycli6@se.cuhk.edu.hk
says...
>
>> i want to ask a question in array.
>>type MY_ARRAY is array(INTEGER range <>) of FLOAT;
>>
>>what is the meaning of <>, also can i replace INTEGER with
>>other type? such as FLOAT, BOOLEAN?
>>
>
><> means the range is undertmined at type declaration time.
>when you then define a variable this type, then you need to specify
>the range. This way you can use the same type to define different
>objects of that type of varying ranges. so you dont have to have
>to declare a new type everytime where is the only difference
>between them is the value of the range. this is called generic type.
>

This is not correct.  Such a type is called an _unconstrained_
array type.

>yes, you can change INTEGER above. this is the type of the index. which
>can be any scalar type.


This is wrong.  Array indices can be of any _discrete_ type.  This
means that the real scalar types are _excluded_

>
>check some of the Ada text books for examples.
>
>bill
>