arraylast( in theory

[Gary Yonaites]

If the array is indeed empty then the arraylast( function will return  
"". As an example you could test with arraylast("",",") which returns  
"". You are arguing that a single element array is no longer an array  
by definition. I think that is misleading since in Panorama arrays  
are dynamic creatures that can vary from no elements to billions of  
elements (ok, maybe not billions on my computer) and still be treated  
as an array. In fact, arrays are text strings that we can interpret  
as an array for processing purposes. Any text string can be treated  
as an array depending upon the separator used. Some programming  
languages use static arrays that are preset to the number of elements  
used when created but Panorama uses dynamic test strings that can be  
treated as arrays or treated as standard text. I know you are  
familiar with all this but some others on the list might gain some  
insight into what might at first appear as the rather mysterious land  
of arrays.

If you want to create your own custom function you could use  
something like ?(arraysize(thetext,thesep)=1,"",arraylast 
(thetext,thesep))

Enough of this, now back to my taxes.

Gary
gary at yonaites.com

On Feb 23, 2008, at 11:23 AM, James Cook wrote:

> If
> I want to grab the last element of an array and there is no array, it
> would seem that arraylast( should be empty.