SPLASH Data Structures

Records
A Record is a data structure that contains one or more columns along with a expression that determines the data type and value for the column. One or more columns in the record can be defined to be a key column. Each record also has a operation code with the default operation code being an insert. The compiler implicitly determines the type for each of the columns based upon the type of the column expression. A record that is created can be stored in a Stream or it can be stored in a record variable with a compatible record type.
XML Values
An XML value is a value composed of XML elements and attributes, where elements can contain other XML elements or text. XML values can be created directly or built by parsing string values. XML values cannot be stored in records, but can be converted to string representation and stored in that form.
Vectors
A vector is a sequence of values, all of which must have the same type, with an ability to access elements of the sequence by an integer index. A vector has a size, from a minimum of 0 to a maximum of 2 billion entries.
Dictionaries
Dictionaries are data structures that associate keys with values. They are called maps in C++ and Java, arrays in AWK, and association lists in LISP, so they are common data structures.
Window Iterators
Window iterators are a means of explicitly iterating over all of the records stored in a window. It is usually more convenient, and safer, to use the for loop mechanism (see above), but iterators provide extra flexibility.
Event Caches
Event caches are an alternate windowing mechanism that provides an alternative to the CCL KEEP clause when greater control or flexibility is required. They are organized into buckets, based on values of the fields in the records and are often used when vectors or dictionaries are not quite the right data structure.