We can create a new array with a data literal like :

var myChest = ["cup","ball","hat","gloves","pen"]; // notice the comma separated list enclosed in square brackets

or using the built-in array constructor function Array() like below :

var myChest = new Array("cup","ball","hat","gloves","pen"); // notice the comma separated list enclosed but in normal brackets this time

To create an array with the Array() constructor we need to use the new operator followed by the word Array.

var myChest = new Array(); // create an empty array

var myChest = new Array(10); // create an array with 10 empty placeholders

An array can contain any number of items including items of different types we could have a mix of strings and numbers like in the example below :

var myChest = ["cup",10,"hat","gloves",4];

if we want to access a particular element of an array we have created we need to specify the array identifier followed by the element's index within square brackets : arrayName[elementNumber]

in the example below we trace the first element of the array myChest :

var myChest = new Array("cup","ball","hat","gloves","pen"); trace(myChest[0]); // display the string cup

The first element's index of an array is 0 and not 1. The last element's index of an array is the array length minus 1.

the code below retrieves all the elements of myChest and trace them to the output window :

var myChest = new Array("cup","ball","hat","gloves","pen"); for(var i=0;i<=myChest.length-1;i++){ trace(myChest[i]); } // display the strings cup, ball, hat, gloves and pen in the output window

The property length retrieves the length of an array. As stated before we subtract 1 from myChest.length to display the last element of the array. If we don't substract 1 from myChest.length the loop will run 5 times and will display undefined on the last run because there is no element myChest[5], the last one being myChest[4].