getarrays function

Synopsis

$getarrays([<pattern>])

Technical

Returns the names of existing named arrays created by $setitem(). With no input, it returns all array names. Optional input is an EPIC case-insensitive wildcard pattern matched against each complete name; this is not a plain prefix filter or a regular expression. Use prefix* to select names beginning with a prefix.

The entire input is used as the pattern, without splitting it into words or removing surrounding quotes. Additional text is part of the pattern, rather than an ignored extra argument. /xdebug dword does not change this parsing.

Names are returned in uppercase, in the array registry's sorted name order. These are named arrays, separate from /assign variable structures. The function does not display the names or alter any array.

Practical

Use this to discover arrays when a script needs to inspect or modify several of them without knowing their names in advance. See $numarrays() for the number of arrays and $numitems() for an array's item count. Deleting an array removes its name from subsequent results.

Returns

A space-separated list of matching names, or the empty string when there are no arrays or no names match. No input selects all arrays; a nonempty pattern that matches nothing also returns empty.

Examples

Given arrays named alpha, beta, and alpine:

fe ($getarrays()) array_name {
    echo $array_name has $numitems($array_name) items
}

Source

Registered in source/functions.c. Name registration, sorted indexing, and function_getarrays(): source/array.c. Wildcard matching: source/reg.c.