In FoxPro I used to put the data presented on a form into two arrays.
One contained the "before modification" the other the "after
modification" data. After hitting an <OK> button I could quickly check
if the user made any modification just by comparing the values in the
two array and update the values in the table accordingly by creating
the appropriate SQL statement dynamically on the fly. It was much
quicker than messing with any temp tables or cursors alike. When you
write data entry form applications speed is everything. You do not
want to slow down the very fast data entry folks who type without
looking the keyboard and stop and see the form only if an audible
feedback alerts them for something wrong.
So that is one case when arrays are very useful.
János
On Monday, Jun 2, 2003, at 05:56 America/New_York, Dani Oderbolz wrote:
> Josh Berkus wrote:
>
>> FWIW, I primarily develop business/accounting applications, and have
>> to say that arrays as a data type have no place in business/financial
>> applications in permanent tables. I have yet to see a case in such
>> an application where a child table was not more appropriate than an
>> array.
> Hi,
> I completely agree with Josh.
> Its much easier to query another table then to fiddle the data out of
> the Array.
> For me, arrays make sense only in some special cases, in all others
> its like a violation of the relational paradigma.
>
> Cheers, Dani
>
>
>
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