Bug #17763 Updated: Interpretation of the term "multi-dimensional array"

ID: 17763 Updated by: m.ford@lmu.ac.uk Reported By: kristian.raue@gmx.de Status: Closed Bug Type: Feature/Change Request Operating System: all PHP Version: 4.2.1 New Comment: Oh, yes, I like it the way it is too -- my contribution was in no way advocating a change, but was merely a response to jmcastagnetto@php.net asking: > If you know of a language that supports the behavior you point of in > their *native* array support, I would like to learn. However, at the same time I was agreeing that "multi-dimensional array" is a misleading term for PHP's arrays -- they are, indeed, more accurately "nested arrays" or "arrays of arrays". But that's a fairly fussy distinction, and if no-one feels inclined to change the documentation, I can live with it. Previous Comments: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2002-07-02 05:45:37] kristian.raue@gmx.de I totally agree with sniper's view on the topic. That is why I initially wrote: "I very much like the way PHP organizes Arrays, don't change it." The reason why I submitted a documentation bug is just the terminology. I got confused by the word 'multidimensional' because the array does not behave multidimensionally like a multidimensional matrix would. I still think "nested array" would be more precise. But if nobody else has a problem with the current terminology, is perfectly fine with me to close the report. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2002-07-01 18:09:44] sniper@php.net PHP is PHP..let's keep it like that and not make it more cryptic than it is. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2002-07-01 17:52:29] jmcastagnetto@php.net If you really consider this array behaviour would be a "good thing" then do not submit it as a documentation bug, but as a feature request. Personally I do not think this type of data structure slicing is difficult to implement with a simple loop in PHP, or with a Matrix extension in C (see GSL for example). I will reclassify this as a feature request, and see if someone from php-dev decides to do something about this in the code, or just close this report. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2002-07-01 13:20:16] m.ford@lmu.ac.uk Well, I think I'd agree with "nested array" and "multi-dimensional array". As for supporting the behaviour, this may (or may not!) be what you're looking for: In FORTRAN 9x if you declare a 2-dimensional array as: INTEGER, DIMENSION(2:5, 3:10) :: values then you can refer to (for example): values(2,:) ! retrieve first row values(:,3) ! retrieve first column Similarly, in Algol68 you can declare: [2:5, 3:10] INT values; and refer to: values[2,] # retrieve first row # values[,3] # retrieve first column # I'm not sure, however, if any of this is relevant, since both these examples of column-slicing apply to multi-dimensional arrays; personally, I wouldn't *expect* this kind of functionality with nested arrays, simply because they are arrays *of* arrays, and not monolithic multi-dimensioned ones. (In Algol68, it is also possible to declare an "array of arrays", but, from my dim, distant and exceedingly imperfect memory, I don't think you can "column"-slice those in the same way!) Cheers! Mike ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2002-07-01 10:43:52] kristian.raue@gmx.de You are right, "multi-dimensional matrix" is propably a more precise term of what I meant. I don't know of a language that supports this behavior in their *native* array support and I don't have any example C code which can implement such constructs. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The remainder of the comments for this report are too long. To view the rest of the comments, please view the bug report online at http://bugs.php.net/17763 -- Edit this bug report at http://bugs.php.net/?id=17763&edit=1