The call type(A, hfarray) checks to see if A is an array of hardware floats (an hfarray). It will return true if A is an hfarray, and false otherwise. See the information under hfarray for a description of the hfarray data structure and how to create hfarrays.

The optional argument(s) must be either an integer, or ranges of integers. They are used to specify the desired dimensions of an hfarray.

If x_i is an integer it specifies the number of dimensions of the hfarray A.  For example, 'hfarray'(2) would specify a 2-D hfarray.

If $x_1,x_2,...,x_n$ are ranges, they specify the hfarray bounds (and implicitly the dimension) of the hfarray A.  For example, 'hfarray'(1..2,1..posint) would specify a 2-D hfarray with exactly two rows and one or more columns.

It is necessary to surround the word hfarray with quotes $\left(\text{'}\right)$ when using this function in the second form.  This prevents invocation of the hfarray function, which is used to create arrays.

$A≔\mathrm{hfarray}\left(1..2\,1..2\,\left[\left[1\,3\right]\,\left[\frac{1}{2}\,5\right]\right]\right)$

$A≔\left[\begin{array}{cc}1.& 3.\\ 0.500000000000000& 5.\end{array}\right]$

$\mathrm{type}\left(A\,\mathrm{hfarray}\right)$

$\mathrm{true}$

$\mathrm{type}\left(A\,'\mathrm{hfarray}'\left(1..2\,1..2\right)\right)$

$\mathrm{true}$

$\mathrm{type}\left(A\,'\mathrm{hfarray}'\left(2\right)\right)$

$\mathrm{true}$

$\mathrm{type}\left(A\,'\mathrm{hfarray}'\left(1..2\right)\right)$

$\mathrm{false}$