Hi,
I am aware of this lack of explanations around what arrays and hashtables are within my system. I need to address this, it's a given for people who programs, and so it's difficult for me to find the right approach to explain this in plain english
basically:
ArrayList, is simply a "list" of items, so you need to be able to set/get/delete/add/find etc etc, I think that make sense yes?
HashTables are a bit more complex, it's simply a list of Key/value pairs, think of it as a list of properties, you need to reference the property ( the key) and you need the value of this property ( the value), it's like css, "background" is the key and the value could be "#00ff00" which would render the page with a green background.
here I bring this kind of possibilities within PlayMaker, and for this you need all the various actions to manipulation hashtables.
"clear" simply empties the list
"get" will return the value based on index ( for arrayList, index starts at 0, not 1) or the hashtable key itself
"hashTable Keys" will store all keys in an arrayList, sometimes it's useful if you want to iterate through all keys, NOT to find one, but to process them one way or the other. Typicaly example, you want to create a drop down menu, likely the drop down item name you show to the user is not the actual value you want to refere too. so for this create a hashtable:
"Red": Color(1,0,0)
"Green":Color(0,1,0)
"Blue":Color(0,0,1)
so here in one convenient place you define your drop down content, when you want to display it, you want to get the keys only, and inject them into the ui system of your choice, and for this you only need the keys, so using "hashtable keys" is perfect here.
now, the user picekd one, you want to use that selection to do something, simply use "Hashtable get" and reference what the user picked, say "Blue" and you will get in return Color(0,0,1).
Does that help a bit?
bye,
Jean