ASP: Arrays

That's assumed that you are aware of fundamental features of arrays, so let's consider how they are handled in ASP, in VBScript.

The VBScript arrays are 0 based, meaning that the array element indexing starts always from 0. The 0 index represents the first position in the array, the 1 index represents the second position in the array, and so forth.

There are two types of VBScript arrays - static and dynamic. Static arrays remain with fixed size throughout their life span. To use static VBScript arrays you need to know upfront the maximum number of elements this array will contain. If you need more flexible VBScript arrays with variable index size, then you can use dynamic VBScript arrays. VBScript dynamic arrays index size can be increased/decreased during their life span.

Static Arrays

Let's create an array called 'arrCars' that will hold the names of 5 cars:

Here is another way to define the array in VBScript:

Dynamic Arrays

Dynamic arrays come in handy when you aren't sure how many items your array will hold. To create a dynamic array you should use the Dim statement along with the array’s name, without specifying upper bound:

In order to use this array you need to use the ReDim statement to define the array’s upper bound:

If in future you need to resize this array you should use the Redim statement again. Be very careful with the ReDim statement. When you use the ReDim statement you lose all elements of the array. Using the keyword PRESERVE in conjunction with the ReDim statement will keep the array we already have and increase the size: