Your friend has a dog. He has named it Dog. Now nobody is allowed to refer to a dog as a dog.
Arrays have existed as a ‘variables’ concept for as long as humans have had to think of collections of related things. Fred Flintstone had an array of clubs of varying sizes. He knew them as Club(1), Club(2) etc.
Arrays can be dynamic. If Fred Flintstone acquired a new club to add to his collection his array increased in size by one. That’s dynamic. Also, if he dumped Club(3) and replaced it with a new one that became Club(3) then again that’s the dynamic nature of arrays.
Dynamic arrays have been with us since the beginning of time.
As a programming concept also they have been with us for ages. That’s not surprising as programming concepts originated from humans wanting simple things to be modelled.
So, what about the dog?
I referred to a dynamic array with a colleague while trying to solve Bill Jelen’s excellent challenge #2438.
My colleague objected to my use of the term ‘dynamic array’.
Apparently, according to some (!), the term dynamic array is now reserved for Dynamic Array Functions which is a set of newly engineered formulas in Excel as of 2019.
Millenia of human civilization, and the development of ideas, is now extinguished and replaced by what is now a set of formulas in Excel.
So, here’s the bit my colleague is missing.
The newly announced feature in Excel is ‘Dynamic Array Formulas’.
They are formulas that return an array of results. Previously a formula returned a single value. So this is new and different. Correct.
On the other hand, a Dynamic Array is an array that is dynamic. This is the thing that has been with us since Fred Flintstone as a data concept.
So, what about the dog?
I shall continue to call a dog a dog, despite you naming your dog ‘Dog’.
I hope that’s alright.
BTW: my take on Bill’s #2438 will be available soon. It demonstrates the powerful use of Dynamic Arrays.
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