An array can have up to 11 dimensions although you will probably never use more than three. Only the first dimension can be resized, using the resize action statement (described at the end of this section).

 

For each dimension specification, you can specify what integer values you want to use to reference the elements. For example,

 

string Colors[0 thru 5]

 

has one dimension containing six elements, starting with "0" and ending with "5". If you do not specify a starting reference, the default is 1. For example,

 

integer SalesGraph[4]

 

has four elements, starting with "1" and ending with "4".

Values for specifying dimensions can be integer constants, integer literals, expressions containing both, or integer variables. Variables cannot be used. For example, if you have defined a constant such as:

 

constant NumDataPoints is 10

 

and then later define an array as:

 

integer Graph_A[NumDataPoints + 5]

 

the array Graph_A will have 15 elements.

Note that array variables cannot be passed to ESL subroutines.