Note: This feature only applies to Virtuoso 7.0 and later.

Parameters in vectored procedures or FOR VECTORED blocks can be declared to be of the corresponding scalar data type. The vectoring is thus in most cases transparent; the variable will simply have multiple scalar values instead of one. The ANY type in a vectored code section is represented as an array of serialized values. Thus types that are represented as data structures in allocated memory (e.g., arrays, hash tables, XML elements, etc.) will not work efficiently with ANY vectored variables. In some cases (for example, with streams or dictionaries), assigning to a vectored ANY will lose the information.

Therefore, if dealing with vectors of complex data types in vectored code, the variable holding these must be declared as an ANY ARRAY. With this type, the representation will be an array of pointers to allocated memory, not an array of flat serialized values. The ANY ARRAY type must be used instead of the customary ANY in all cases involving complex values in vectored code. If dealing with vectors of simple scalars like strings or numbers, the ANY type is generally more efficient.