Comparison of programming languages (array)

This comparison of programming languages (array) compares the features of array data structures or matrix processing for various computer programming languages.

Syntax

Array dimensions

The following list contains syntax examples of how to determine the dimensions (index of the first element, the last element or the size in elements).

Some languages index from zero. Some index from one. Some carry no such restriction, or even allow indexing by any enumerated type, not only integers.

Languages	Size	First	Last
Ada	name'Length	name'First	name'Last
ALGOL 68	UPB name - LWB name+1 2 UPB name - 2 LWB name+1 etc.	LWB name 2 LWB name etc.	UPB name 2 UPB name etc.
APL	⍴ name (⍴ name)[index]	⎕IO	(⍴ name)-~⎕IO (⍴ name)[index]-~⎕IO
AWK	length	1	asorti
C#, Visual Basic (.NET), Windows PowerShell, F#	name.Length	name.GetLowerBound(dimension)	name.GetUpperBound(dimension)
CFML	arrayLen(name) name.len()	1	name.len()
Ch	max(shape(name))	0	max(shape(name))-1
Common Lisp	(length name)	0	(1- (length name))
D	name.length	0	name.length-1 $-1
Fortran	size(name)	lbound(name)	ubound(name)
Go	len(name)	0	len(name) - 1
Haskell	rangeSize (bounds name)	fst (bounds name)	snd (bounds name)
ISLISP	(length name)	0	(1- (length name))
Icon	*name	1	*name
Cobra, D, Haxe, Java, JavaScript, Scala	name.length	0	name.length - 1
J	#name	0	<:@#name
JavaScript (ES2022)	name.length	0 name.at(0) [1]	name.length - 1 name.at(-1) [1]
Julia	length(name) size(name)	begin first.(axes(name))	end last.(axes(name))
Lingo	count(name)	1	getLast(name)
LiveCode	length(name)	1 first	-1 last
Lua	#name	1 by convention; any integer [2]	#name
Mathematica	Length[name]	1 First[name]	-1 Last[name]
MATLAB, GNU Octave	length(name)	1	end
Nim	name.len	name.low [3]	name.high
Oberon	LEN(name)	0	LEN(name) - 1
Object Pascal	Length(name)	0 low(name)	Length(name)-1 high(name)
Objective-C (NSArray * only)	[name count]	0	[name count] - 1
OCaml	Array.length name	0	Array.length name - 1
Perl	scalar(@name)	$[	$#name
PHP	count(name)	0	count(name) - 1
PL/I	dim(name[,dim])	lbound(name[,dim])	hbound(name[,dim])
Python	len(name)	0	-1 len(name) - 1
R	length(name)	1	length(name)
Raku	@name.elems	0	@name.end
Red	length? name	name/1 first name	last name
Ruby	name.size	0 name.first	-1 name.size - 1 name.last
Rust	name.len()	0	name.len() - 1
S-Lang	length(name)	0	-1 length(name)-1
Scheme	(vector-length vector)	0	(- (vector-length vector) 1)
Smalltalk	name size	1 name first	name size name last
Swift	name.count	0	name.count - 1
Unicon	*name	1	*name
Visual Basic	UBound(name)-LBound(name)+1	LBound(name)	UBound(name)
Wolfram Language	Length[name]	1 First[name]	-1 Last[name]
Xojo	UBound(name)	0	UBound(name)
XPath/XQuery	count($name)	1	count($name) last() array:size(name) [4]

Indexing

The following list contains syntax examples of how to access a single element of an array.

Format	Languages
name[index] or name[index1, index2] etc.	ALGOL 58, ALGOL 60, ALGOL 68, AWK, Julia, Modula, Pascal, Object Pascal, C#, S-Lang [5] Icon, Unicon
name[index] or name[index1; index2] etc. or index⌷name or index1 index2⌷name etc.	APL
name[index]	ActionScript, C, CFML, Ch, Cobra, C++, D, Go, Haxe, Java, JavaScript, Lingo, Lua, Nim, Objective-C (NSArray *), Perl, [5] PHP, Python, [5] R, Ruby, [5] Rust, Swift
$name[index]	Perl, [5] Windows PowerShell, [5] XPath/XQuery [4]
@name[index]	Raku
name(index) or name(index1, index2) etc.	Ada, ALGOL W, BASIC, COBOL, Fortran, RPG, GNU Octave, MATLAB, PL/I, Scala, Visual Basic, Visual Basic (.NET), Xojo
$name(index)	XPath/XQuery [4]
name.(index)	OCaml
name.[index]	F#, OCaml
name/index	Red
name ! index	Haskell
$name ? index	XPath/XQuery [4]
(vector-ref name index)	Scheme
(aref name index)	Common Lisp
(elt name index)	ISLISP
name[[index]]	Mathematica, [5] Wolfram Language
name at:index	Smalltalk
[name objectAtIndex:index]	Objective-C (NSArray * only)
index{name	J
name.item(index) or name @ index [6]	Eiffel

Slicing

The following list contains syntax examples of how a range of element of an array can be accessed.

In the following table:

• first – the index of the first element in the slice
• last – the index of the last element in the slice
• end – one more than the index of last element in the slice
• len – the length of the slice (= end - first)
• step – the number of array elements in each (default 1)

Format	Languages
name[first:last]	ALGOL 68, [7] Julia, Icon, Unicon
name[first+(⍳len)-⎕IO]	APL
name[first:end:step]	Python [8] [9]
name[first:end]	Go
name[first..last]	Pascal, Object Pascal, Delphi, Nim
$name[first..last]	Windows PowerShell
@name[first..last]	Perl [10]
name[first..last] name[first...end] name[first, len]	Ruby [9]
copy/part skip name first len	Red
name(first..last)	Ada [7]
name(first:last)	Fortran, [7] [8] GNU Octave, MATLAB [7] [10]
name[[first;;last;;step]]	Mathematica, [7] [8] [9] Wolfram Language
name[[first:last]]	S-Lang [7] [8] [10]
name.[first..step..last]	F#
name.slice(first, end)	Haxe, JavaScript, Scala
name.slice(first, len)	CFML
array_slice(name, first, len)	PHP [9]
(subseq name first end)	Common Lisp
(subseq name first end)	ISLISP
Array.sub name first len	OCaml
[name subarrayWithRange:NSMakeRange(first, len)]	Objective-C (NSArray * only)
(first([+i.@(-~)end){name	J
name[first..<end] name[first...last]	Swift
name copyFrom: first to:last name copyFrom: first count:len	Smalltalk
name[first..end]	D, C# [11] [12]
name[first..end] name[first..=last]	Rust
name[first:end]	Cobra
table.move(name, first, last, 1, {})	Lua [13]

Array system cross-reference list

Language	Default base index	Specifiable index type [14]	Specifiable base index	Bound check	Multidimensional	Dynamically-sized	Vectorized operations
Ada	index type [15]	yes	yes	checked	yes	init [16]	some, others definable [17]
ALGOL 68	1	no [18]	yes	varies	yes	yes	user definable
APL	1	?	0 or 1 [19]	checked	yes	yes	yes
AWK	1	yes, implicitly	no	unchecked	yes, as delimited string	yes, rehashed	no
BASIC	0	?	no	checked	no	init [16]	?
C	0	no	no [20]	unchecked	partially	init, [16] [21] heap [22]	no
Ch	0	no	no	checked	yes, also array of array [23]	init, [16] [21] heap [22]	yes
C++ [17]	0	no	no [20]	unchecked	yes, also array of array [23]	heap [22]	no
C#	0	no	partial [24]	checked	yes	heap [22] [25]	yes (LINQ select)
CFML	1	no	no	checked	yes, also array of array [23]	yes	no
COBOL	1	no [26]	no	checked	array of array [23] [27]	no [28]	some intrinsics
Cobra	0	no	no	checked	array of array [23]	heap	?
Common Lisp	0	?	no	checked [29]	yes	yes	yes (map or map-into)
D	0	yes [30]	no	varies [31]	yes	yes	?
F#	0	no	partial [24]	checked	yes	heap [22] [25]	yes (map)
FreeBASIC	0	no	yes	checked	yes	init, [16] init [32]	?
Fortran	1	yes	yes	varies [33]	yes	yes	yes
FoxPro	1	?	no	checked	yes	yes	?
Go	0	no	no	checked	array of array [23]	no [34]	no
Hack	0	yes	yes	checked	yes	yes	yes
Haskell	0	yes [35]	yes	checked	yes, also array of array [23]	init [16]	?
IDL	0	?	no	checked	yes	yes	yes
ISLISP	0	?	no	checked	yes	init [16]	yes (map or map-into)
J	0	?	no	checked	yes	yes	yes
Java [17]	0	no	no	checked	array of array [23]	init [16]	?
JavaScript	0	no	no	checked [36]	array of array [23]	yes	yes
Julia	1	yes	yes	checked (can be skipped locally; or globally by user)	yes, also array of array	yes	yes
Lingo	1	?	?	unchecked	yes	yes	yes
Lua	1	?	partial [37]	checked	array of array [23]	yes	?
Mathematica	1	no	no	checked	yes	yes	yes
MATLAB	1	?	no	checked	yes [38]	yes	yes
Nim	0	yes [3]	yes	optional [39]	array of array [23]	yes	yes [40]
Oberon	0	?	no	checked	yes	no	?
Oberon-2	0	?	no	checked	yes	yes	?
Objective-C [17]	0	no	no	checked	array of array [23]	yes	no
OCaml	0	no	no	checked by default	array of array [23]	init [16]	?
Pascal, Object Pascal	index type [15]	yes	yes	varies [41]	yes	varies [42]	some
Perl	0	no	yes ($[)	checked [36]	array of array [23]	yes	no [43]
Raku	0	no	no	checked [36]	yes	yes	yes
PHP	0	yes [44]	yes [44]	checked [44]	yes	yes	yes
PL/I	1	yes	yes	optional	yes	no	yes [45]
Python	0	no	no	checked	array of array [23]	yes	no [46]
RPG	1	no	no	?	no	no	?
R	1	?	no	unchecked	yes, also array of array	yes	yes
Ring	1	?	partial [37]	checked	array of array [23]	yes	?
Ruby	0	no	no	checked [36]	array of array [23]	yes	?
Rust	0	no	no	checked	array of array [23]	no	?
Sass	1	no	no	checked	array of array [23]	init [31]	?
S-Lang	0	?	no	checked	yes	yes	yes
Scala	0	no	no	checked	array of array [23]	init [16]	yes (map)
Scheme	0	?	no	checked	array of array [23]	init [16]	yes (map)
Smalltalk [17]	1	?	no	checked	array of array [23]	yes [47]	?
Swift	0	no	no	checked	array of array [23]	yes	?
Visual Basic	0, 1, or index type [48]	no	yes	checked	yes	yes	?
Visual Basic (.NET)	0 or index type [48]	no	partial [24]	checked	yes	yes	yes (LINQ select)
Wolfram Language	1	no	no	checked	yes	yes	yes
Windows PowerShell	0	no	no	checked	yes	heap	?
Xojo	0	no	no	checked	yes	yes	no
XPath/XQuery	1	no	no	checked	array of array [4] [23]	yes	yes

Vectorized array operations

Some compiled languages such as Ada and Fortran, and some scripting languages such as IDL, MATLAB, and S-Lang, have native support for vectorized operations on arrays. For example, to perform an element by element sum of two arrays, a and b to produce a third c, it is only necessary to write

c = a + b

In addition to support for vectorized arithmetic and relational operations, these languages also vectorize common mathematical functions such as sine. For example, if x is an array, then

y = sin (x)

will result in an array y whose elements are sine of the corresponding elements of the array x.

Vectorized index operations are also supported. As an example,

even=x(2::2);odd=x(::2);

is how one would use Fortran to create arrays from the even and odd entries of an array. Another common use of vectorized indices is a filtering operation. Consider a clipping operation of a sine wave where amplitudes larger than 0.5 are to be set to 0.5. Using S-Lang, this can be done by

y = sin(x); y[where(abs(y)>0.5)] = 0.5;

Mathematical matrix operations

Language/ Library	Create	Determinant	Transpose	Element	Column	Row	Eigenvalues
APL	m←dims⍴x11x12...	-.×m	⍉m	m[i;j] or ij⌷m	m[;j] or j⌷[2]m or j⌷⍤1⊢m or j⌷⍉m	m[i;] or i⌷m	⌹⍠1⊢m
Fortran	m = RESHAPE([x11, x12, ...], SHAPE(m))		TRANSPOSE(m)	m(i,j)	m(:,j)	m(i,:)
Ch [49]	m = {...}	determinant(m)	transpose(m)	m[i-1][j-1]	shape(m,0)	shape(m,1)	eigen(output, m, NULL)
Julia and its standard library LinearAlgebra	m=[12;34] or m=[1234]	det(m)	transpose(m) or m' for real matrices	m[i,j]	m[:,j]	m[i,:]	eigen(m).values
Mathematica / Wolfram Language	{{x11,x12,...},...}	Det[m]	Transpose[m]	m[[i,j]]	m[[;;,j]]	m[[i]]	Eigenvalues[m]
MATLAB / GNU Octave	m = [...]	det(m)	m.'	m(i,j)	m(:,j)	m(i,:)	eig(m)
NumPy	m = mat(...)	linalg.det(m)	m.T	m[i-1,j-1]	m[:,j-1]	m[i-1,:]	linalg.eigvals(m)
R	m <- matrix(...) or m <- array(...)	det(m)	t(m)	m[i, j]	m[, j]	m[i, ]	eigen(m)
S-Lang	m = reshape([x11, x12, ...], [new-dims])		m = transpose(m)	m[i,j]	m[*,j]	m[j,*]
SymPy	m = Matrix(...)	m.det()	m.T	m[i-1,j-1]	m.col(j-1)	m.row(i-1)	m.eigenvals()

References

1. "ECMAScript® 2025 Language Specification".
2. "Programming in Lua : 11.1".
3. "Nim Tutorial (Part I)".
4. XPath/XQuery has two kinds of arrays. Sequences(1,2,3) which cannot nest and in the XPath/XQuery 3.1 version arraysarray { 1,2,3} or [1,2,3] which can.
5. The index may be a negative number, indicating the corresponding number of places before the end of the array.
6. "Eiffeldoc : ARRAY".
7. Slices for multidimensional arrays are also supported and defined similarly.
8. Slices of the type first:last:step are also supported.
9. last or end may be a negative number, indicating to stop at the corresponding number of places before the end of the array.
10. More generally, for 1-d arrays Perl and S-Lang allow slices of the formarray[indices], where indices can be a range such mentioned in footnote 2 or an explicit list of indices, e.g., '[0,9,3,4]', or a mix of both, e.g., A[[[0:3]],7,9,[11:2:-3]]].
11. C# 8.0 proposed feature (as of 29 August 2019 ^[update] )
12. "Ranges - C# 8.0 language proposals". Microsoft Docs. Microsoft. Retrieved 29 August 2019.
13. "Lua 5.3 Reference Manual". www.lua.org. Retrieved 2022-04-02.
14. The index type can be a freely chosen integer type, enumerated type, or character type. For arrays with non-compact index types see: Associative array
15. The default base index is the lowest value of the index type used
16. Size can only be chosen on initialization after which it is fixed.
17. This list is strictly comparing language features. In every language (even assembly language) it is possible to provide improved array handling via add on libraries. This language has improved array handling as part of its standard library
18. ALGOL 68 arrays must be subscripted (and sliced) by type INT. However a hash function could be used to convert other types to INT. e.g. name[hash("string")]
19. The indexing base can be 0 or 1 as per the System Variable ⎕IO. This value may apply to the whole "workspace", or be localized to a user-defined function or a single primitive function by use of the Variant operator (⍠).
20. Because C does not bound-check indices, a pointer to the interior of any array can be defined that will symbolically act as a pseudo-array that accommodates negative indices or any integer index origin.
21. C99 allows for variable size arrays; however there is almost no compiler available to support this new feature
22. Size can only be chosen on initialization when memory is allocated on the heap, as distinguished from when it is allocated on the stack. This note need not be made for a language that always allocates arrays on the heap.
23. Allows arrays of arrays which can be used to emulate most—but not all—aspects multi-dimensional arrays
24. The base can be changed when initializing with System.Array.CreateInstance (which returns System.Array), but not when using the language syntax. Arrays with non-zero base indices are not the same type as those with zero base indices and cannot be manipulated using language syntax (the GetValue and SetValue methods must be used instead) or downcast to a specific type (T[] in C#, or T() in VB.NET), preventing breakage of code assuming base indices of zero.
25. Allows creating fixed-size arrays in "unsafe" code, allowing enhanced interoperability with other language
26. COBOL arrays may be indexed with "INDEX" types, distinct from integer types
27. While COBOL only has arrays-of-arrays, array elements can be accessed with a multi-dimensional-array-like syntax, where the language automatically matches the indexes to the arrays enclosing the item being referenced
28. COBOL provides a way to specify that the usable size of an array is variable, but this can never be greater than the declared maximum size, which is also the allocated size
29. Most Common Lisp implementations allow checking to be selectively disabled
30. Associative Arrays - D Programming Language
31. Behaviour can be tuned via compiler switches. As in DMD 1.0 bounds are checked in debug mode and unchecked in release mode for efficiency
32. FreeBASIC supports both variable array lengths and fixed length arrays. Arrays declared with no index range are created as variable-length arrays, while arrays with a declared range are created as fixed-length arrays
33. Almost all Fortran implementations offer bounds checking options via compiler switches. However by default, bounds checking is usually turned off for efficiency
34. While Golang's Array type is not dynamically sized, the data type Slice is dynamically-sized and is much more common in use than arrays.
35. Haskell arrays (Data.Array) allow using any type which is an instance of Ix as index type. So a custom type can be defined and used as an index type as long as it instances Ix. Also, tuples of Ix types are also Ix types; this is commonly used to implement multi-dimensional arrays
36. In these languages, one can access or write to an array index greater than or equal to the length of the array, and the array will implicitly grow to that size. This may appear at first as if the bounds are not checked; however, the bounds are checked to decide to grow the array, and you do not have unsafe memory access like you do in C.
37. By specifying a base index, arrays at an arbitrary base can be created. However, by default, Lua's length operator does not consider the base index of the array when calculating the length. This behavior can be changed via metamethods.
38. At least 2 dimensions (scalar numbers are 1×1 arrays, vectors are 1×n or n×1 arrays).
39. "Nim Compiler User Guide".
40. "Vectorization - R-style logical vector operation in Nim".
41. Many implementations (Turbo Pascal, Object Pascal (Delphi), Free Pascal) allow the behaviour to be changed by compiler switches and in-line directives
42. Varies by implementation. Newer implementations (Free Pascal, Object Pascal (Delphi)) allow heap-based dynamic arrays.
43. Standard Perl array data types do not support vectorized operations as defined here. However, the Perl Data Language extension adds array objects with this ability.
44. PHP's "arrays" are associative arrays. You can use integers and strings as the keys (indexes); floats can also be used as the key but are truncated to integers. There is not really any "base index" or "bounds"
45. Size can be chosen when the array is declared, or when it is allocated, after which it is fixed.
46. The standard Python array type, list, does not support vectorized operations as defined here. However, the numpy extension adds array objects with this ability
47. The class Array is fixed-size, but OrderedCollection is dynamic
48. Microsoft QBASIC, QuickBASIC, Visual Basic, and VBA all had/have the ability to specify Option Base 1, which caused all arrays in the module to default starting at 1 instead of 0. Support for Option Base was phased out in Visual Basic (.NET). In various Microsoft BASIC implementations, arrays can be DIMensioned using to to specify the minimum and maximum index values (e.g. DIM MyArray(2 to 50) AS STRING would have the first index at 2 instead of the default).
49. Ch numerical features