Showing posts with label arrays-outputting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label arrays-outputting. Show all posts

Monday, July 3, 2017

Introduction to Arrays

Update 7/28/17: I've fixed up this post because when I first wrote it, I didn't realize what Open Refine's convention was for naming arrays.

You've probably heard a lot about arrays when working with Open Refine, but what exactly is it?

First of all, I need to explain how software computing works before I can explain the array functionality. When any sort of software needs to process data, it has to break it down into chunks that it can understand. The chunks are in the computer's equivalent of headspace -- much like when you're trying to figure things out in your head.

However, a computer can only process data using certain structures. There are several of these data structures, but I'm just going to cover the array.