Posted by --CELKO-- on 09/29/07 14:16

>> I just got a little curious about how arrays could be implemented in T-SQL, .. <<

The concept of arrays, linked lists, etc. do not exist in SQL -- just
tables. Ever work with LISP? No arrays, and it uses recursion
instead of loops. And LISP only has lists.

SQL is very much a foreign language to the procedural programmer. For
example, in Japanese, there are no articles or plurals, the pronoun
system is totally different (no direct equivalent to first person
singular, etc), the verb tenses are totally different and sentences
have a topic, but not a subject, etc.). But millions of people still
use Japanese.

You can fake a matrix with this skeleton:

CREATE TABLE Array
(i INTEGER NOT NULL CHECK (i BETWEEN 1 and 10),
j INTEGER NOT NULL CHECK (i BETWEEN 1 and 10),
vali INTEGER NOT NULL);

For INTEGER ARRAY A[1:10, 1:10] in a procedural language, but then you
have to write your or own library functions, loop constructs, etc.
And performance will stink.

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