I am trying to understand arrays in cod2 and in cod4. i have an example here from cod4. C++ says that when you are making an array, that you define the type like

int name[5]

wich says integer, array name is name and the size is 5 meaning it's storing five values..

but in cod2 and 4 it's allways this

level.placement["allies"] = [];

or this

level.players = [];

is this just a way of stating that the array is infinate. that the value just keeps going? Can anyone explain this with as much detail as possible. thanks

edited on Nov. 9, 2007 02:18 am by cybershot

An array is nothing more than giving more entity's the same targetname and change the code. If you would use getent it will give a script error because there are more enitiy's with the same targetname. But instead use getentarray and you will not have any problems.

Simle example

entity = getentarray("entity","targetname");

   for (i=0 ; i < entity.size; i++) 

edited on Nov. 9, 2007 04:18 am by All-Killer

array = [];
is just an initialization of the variable array.
It tells that array is now an array and ready to accept values.

Usually array indexes are :
numbers -> array[4] = "allies";
strings -> array["allies"] = 8;

I guess you could use other objects as indexes but numbers and strings should be enough in most cases.

To go a bit deeper into this


In C(++) when you define an array you have to set the number of arguments which are going to be in the array, because the program reserves memory locations for this array.. by telling the program how long the array is going to be and what it will contain (int name[5]) it will know exactly how much memory to reserve.

In CoD my guess is, array=[]; reserves a spot in the memory, with a set number of arguments.. (256 or something probably.. it would be interesting to find out this number, just for fun). By not telling the game how big the array is going to be you can put stuff in it, without knowing in advance how many arguments there will be... like certain entities, triggers or players for instance.

level.players = [];

because the engine won't know in advance how many players there will be.

I know in C++ you can also just create a small array and if need be add more memory "slots" to it or take those you dont need away. Im curious if COD does this automatically if the default number is 256 and you do not use them all up.

wow. that was some good answers. thanks guys. Is there any small functions anyone knows of that contains an array that we can examine, or tear apart to give a greater explanation of how the array is working in the game. especially how it functions with loops.
So Caretaker, how would we find out what the size of the array is just for fun. It must be hard coded into the game then huh?

Just to throw a monkey wrench in, there is also a dynamic
array that adjusts it size on fly.That would actually be poor programing, and a waste of memoryto use a huge array and not use all of its size.

edited on Nov. 9, 2007 10:20 pm by hansgrubber

howabout you provide an example of this dynamic array

From the top of my head.. try something like this:

array=[];
for (k=0;k<2048;k++
{
array[k]=k;
iprintln (k);
wait 0.2;
}

this should fill the array with a new number every 0.2 seconds and print it on screen.. up to 2048... if the array is full, the game will probably crash :p
If not, raise the number and run again..

Actually in C++ now, whenever you declare a array and don't give it a size it is a dynamic array. So right here he declares a array "array" of no size!

array=[];