Array in an array

[madscijr]

Obligatory MySQL/SQLite suggestion.

Ah yes, we still await the tut!   maybe Terry?

I thought someone had already built an SQL library for QB64. Wasn't it steve? I know he built one for Dbase.

That was Spriggsy. 

This thread had me thinking of SQL too, but in the spirit of BASIC, the SPLIT & JOIN delimited text approach is nice and simple.

I see 2 related but separate requirements:

• We want to store nested information. 
  
• We want to save & retrieve this data structure to & from a file system.
  

I might suggest aiming for a solution that is more general purpose: 

• simple to use, easy to store and retrieve values
  
• easy to understand (no complex memory commands or hacks)
  
• not too heavy on resources (e.g. a 2-D array where there are large sections of empty array)
  

In a language like JavaScript this would be simple to do with objects which can be saved in plain text as JSON. 
These "objects" are more structures than true objects - a lot like UDTs in QB. 
It's not OOP with classes, methods, polymorphism, etc. Just a way to store & retrieve nested values.
So if we consider them just as data structures, the "objects" in JavaScript are a lot like UDTs in QB64, 
only without the limitations - you can do arrays of arrays, arrays of structures, structures containing arrays, etc. 
And it all can be converted to/from plain text JSON. 

Now this could be a springboard to conversations about when can we get features in QB64PE like

• associative arrays (dictionaries)
  
• arrays inside UDTs
  
• or why not just support data structures similar to the objects in JavaScript, with native serialization commands to/from JSON? 
  

BUT adding new features to the language is alot of work and takes time, and everyone would have to agree. 

So instead I might suggest using the current QB64PE language to just make a library to implement JavaScript-like structures & associative arrays, that can hold nested data, and serialize/deserialize to/from JSON. We have played with dictionaries, linked lists, and similar stuff before on the old QB64.org site, with hashed keys and other optimizations. Those would be the building blocks. Such a library should help not only NasaCow, but be useful for lots of things. I think there is value there. 

I can look through my code and try and find some of those dictionary and linked list projects, and see what can be done, but if anyone has any code that can be put to this use, feel free to speak up! For now I found this, which could serve as a starting point:
Using Associative Arrays in QBasic