Release 10.1A: OpenEdge Development:
Progress 4GL Handbook

> ## Using arrays instead of lists

> This book cautions you against defining array fields with extents as part of your database definition, for a number of reasons. However, array variables, as well as array fields in temp-tables, can be very useful. One thing to keep in mind is that array element access is much faster than accessing an element of a list of comma-delimited strings. The `CASE` example above shows an example of this. The totals could have been accumulated within a single delimited list, but this would have involved scanning the list for the delimiters with each operation. The memory location of each element of an array is distinct and, therefore, quickly accessed.

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