How to have arrays in IDA's IDC

Question

So to cut straight to the chase - I'm lazy, IDA is mysterious, I need to use IDA arrays in my IDC code for convenience. Because IDC is like C(++) in its syntax I figured I could do:

auto lala[4] = {0,1,2,3};

But that doesn't work. Neither do round or square brackets. Trying to do lala[0] produces this output:

Cannot use [] operator on scalars

What gives?

Answer 1

IDC is closer to C than C++ but both limited in some ways and more flexible in others than C. It supports several variable types but arrays is not one of them:

A variable can contain:

• LONG: a 32-bit signed long integer (64-bit in 64-bit version of IDA)
• INT64: a 64-bit signed long integer
• STR: a character string
• FLOAT: a floating point number (extra precision, up to 25 decimal digits)
• OBJECT: an object with attributes and methods (a concept very close to C++ class) more
• REF: a reference to another variable
• FUNC: a function reference

However, you can use slice syntax with objects to simulate arrays:

auto x = object();
x[0] = value1;
x[1] = "value2";