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Concept
Array programming
Summary
In computer science, array programming refers to solutions that allow the application of operations to an entire set of values at once. Such solutions are commonly used in scientific and engineering settings.
Modern programming languages that support array programming (also known as vector or multidimensional languages) have been engineered specifically to generalize operations on scalars to apply transparently to vectors, matrices, and higher-dimensional arrays. These include APL, J, Fortran 90, MATLAB, Analytica, Octave, R, Cilk Plus, Julia, Perl Data Language (PDL). In these languages, an operation that operates on entire arrays can be called a vectorized operation, regardless of whether it is executed on a vector processor, which implements vector instructions. Array programming primitives concisely express broad ideas about data manipulation. The level of concision can be dramatic in certain cases: it is not uncommon to find array programming language one-liners that require several pages of object-oriented code.
The fundamental idea behind array programming is that operations apply at once to an entire set of values. This makes it a high-level programming model as it allows the programmer to think and operate on whole aggregates of data, without having to resort to explicit loops of individual scalar operations.
Kenneth E. Iverson described the rationale behind array programming (actually referring to APL) as follows:
most programming languages are decidedly inferior to mathematical notation and are little used as tools of thought in ways that would be considered significant by, say, an applied mathematician.
The thesis is that the advantages of executability and universality found in programming languages can be effectively combined, in a single coherent language, with the advantages offered by mathematical notation. it is important to distinguish the difficulty of describing and of learning a piece of notation from the difficulty of mastering its implications.
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