Declaration and Indexing

• You declare an array in Visual Basic using the "Dim" statement. For example, "Dim movies(5) As String" declares a one-dimensional array of strings. The array contains six elements, not five, because Visual Basic uses zero-based indexing. The first element in the array is located at index zero, the second element at index one, and so on. To declare a multidimensional array, include the number indexes in the declaration. For example, "Dim movies(2, 3, 4) As String" declares a three-dimensional array.
  
  

Size and Dimensions

• You may make an array with up to 32 dimensions, although you probably don't need more than three. The array size represents the total number of elements and depends on how many dimensions in it. The formula for array size is (d1 + 1) * (d2 + 1) * ... * (dLast). For example, a 2-by-3 array has a size of 12 because (2 + 1) * (3 + 1) = 12. The size is independent upon the data type, but each dimension depends on data type and available memory.
  
  

Elements

• To set the third element in an array, assign the value with "array(2) = value." To get the third element, simply call it. For example, "Label1.Text = array(2)" displays that value on the label. However, if you try to get or set an element that is outside the array boundaries, such as trying to access the fifth element in a four-element array, Visual Basic will throw an exception. If you do not program proper exception handling, your program will crash.
  
  

Methods and Properties

• When you create an array, you may use the array class methods and properties to manipulate it. For example, some properties allow you to check the length of an array, see whether it has a fixed size, or determine the number of dimensions it has. Methods include sorting arrays, searching through it for a specified element, copying or clearing the array, converting it to another type, returning various values at specified locations such as the upper or lower bounds, or reversing and resizing the array.