More Real-World Examples
The coding solution above, implemented in Rexx, is pretty flexible. Arrays can be defined in advance or through first use. Array sizes do not have to be specified; they are dynamic up to the size of available memory.
Rexx allows any value for indexing an associative array, including numeric values and character, bit or hex strings. Rexx indexing even works with strings that contain illegal character values! This was key to the solution Les devised because the two input files were in different formats and had different data type definitions.
While associative arrays are straightforward, they have many useful applications. As Les observes, "with a little imagination, ... this technique can be applied to a lot of situations where you want to associate one or more sets of data with some arbitrary index for lookup purposes."
Frank Clarke faced just such a situation. He used associative array processing to drive an 11-minute process down to 9 seconds. Frank dryly notes, "The reduced code ran so fast everyone assumed it had failed."
Bob Hamilton's rewrite of an ADABAS/Natural script with associative arrays produced similar benefits. The 17-hour program tied up the entire system while reading through 900,000 records looking for student ID matches. Since associative arrays enabled a single scan of the data, his result was a five-minute run.
And now we present a possible world record-holder: Steve Coalbran who faced a legacy PL/I program that took 18 hours to compare about 10,000 records in a standard table to a database. He scrapped the program and rewrote the application using list processing with associative arrays and far fewer file OPENs and CLOSEs. The program's run time dropped to 4.7 seconds. Steve ended up having to prove his solution really worked to two disbelieving operations analysts!
For more information on Rexx--including free downloads--go to the Rexx Language Association and the Open Object Rexx project.
For more information on associative arrays, see straightforward description, or this Wikipedia entry. If you're new to associative arrays or experienced but a little shakey on your understanding, your time will be well rewarded.
