OpenEdge maps arrays of simple types to ABL arrays. The WSDL Analyzer determines that it must map to an ABL array when it recognizes a Web service array declaration or the use of the minOccurs and maxOccurs XML Schema attributes in a parameter type definition. If a SOAP array is declared as unbounded, the WSDL Analyzer maps it to an ABL array with an indeterminate extent.

When it receives a SOAP response that includes a sparse array parameter, OpenEdge creates an ABL array of the appropriate size and fills it. OpenEdge sets each unused entry in the ABL array to the Unknown value (?).

OpenEdge never passes a sparse array as input to a Web service.

For arrays of complex types, the ABL represents them as one of the following data types, depending on the structure and content of the complex data, as determined by the WSDL Analyzer:

Depending on how the WSDL Analyzer represents it, you might handle the entire array or individual elements as a complex data type (see Complex data types). For more information on how the WSDL Analyzer determines the representation of complex data, see Analyzing complex data.