On Wed, 18 Mar 2009 00:11:35 +0200, Binyamin Dissen wrote:
>On Tue, 17 Mar 2009 22:09:15 -0000 Terry Sambrooks wrote:
>
>:>The question I have been asked relates to whether REXX supports
>:>multi-dimensional arrays. There is a lot of discussion in the manuals about
>:>single dimension arrays a.k.a. STEM variables, but additional dimensions are
>:>not covered which leads me to conclude that multi-dimensional arrays are not
>:>supported.
>
True, they are not.
>Why can't stems be multi-dimensional?
>
>STEM.x.y.z
>
Which is equivalent to:
I = x'.'y'.'z
STEM.I
But this suffers an ambiguity. Consider:
I = 'A.B'
J = 'C'
X = 'A'
Y = 'B.C'
Then STEM.I.J and STEM.X.Y refer to the same variable,
even though I<>X and J<>Y. When this occurs, admittedly
seldom but not never, the astonishment factor is likely
to be enormous.
FORTRAN introduces a similar ambiguity with its flattening
of subscripts.
-- gil
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