keys

Type

function

Summary

Returns a list of the element names in an array.

Syntax

the keys of <arrayName>

keys(<arrayName>)

Description

Use the keys function to manage the elements of an array, or to perform some action on each element in an array.

note

The order of the keys is not alphabetical or chronological; it is based on the internal order. To obtain an alphabetical list of keys, use the sort command:

    put the keys of myArray into myVariable
    sort lines of myVariable

note

Arrays in LiveCode are associative (also known as hash tables). This means that the keys of an array are strings which LiveCode uses to "look up" the array elements rather than numeric indices as in C, Pascal and other languages. Of course it is possible to use numeric values for array keys, but LiveCode will internally convert these into strings before retrieving the array elements.

Parameters

Name	Type	Description
arrayName	array	The name of a variable.

Examples

the keys of myArray

repeat with thisItem = 1 to the number of lines in the keys of it

repeat for each line tKey in the keys of tArray
  put tArray[tKey] & return after tArrayContents
end repeat

Related

command: combine, split, sort

control structure: function

function: arrayEncode, transpose, extents, keys

glossary: command, variable, array

keyword: line, element

operator: is among the keys of

property: properties

Compatibility and Support

Introduced

LiveCode 1.0

OS

mac

windows

linux

Platforms

desktop

server