Fieldsarrays

Fieldsarrays is a data organization construct used to represent tabular data in software systems. A fieldsarray consists of either a sequence of records, each record containing a fixed set of named fields, or a single object that maps each field name to an array of values. These two layouts are commonly referred to as row-oriented and column-oriented representations, respectively.

In a row-oriented layout, fieldsarrays[0] is the first item’s record and fieldsarrays[0].name, fieldsarrays[0].age access the fields. In a column-oriented layout, fieldsarrays.name[2] gives the name of the third item, and fieldsarrays.age[2] its age. Row-oriented structures are often easier to work with in languages that use objects or dictionaries, while column-oriented structures enable efficient columnar operations and data serialization.

Fieldsarrays are used to model datasets, form submissions, API payloads, and other tabular data. They support common operations such as filtering, mapping, and aggregating by applying functions either across items or across fields, depending on the layout. When designing an interface, developers may choose a representation based on access patterns, performance, and interoperability with formats like JSON, CSV, or relational tables.

Implementation notes include ensuring consistent typing across items, handling missing values, and choosing a data container that minimizes memory allocations. In database contexts, a fieldsarray can correspond to a table (row-oriented) or to separate columns (columnar storage) depending on the storage engine.

See also: arrays, records, columnar storage, JSON, CSV.