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ARRAYS

Arrays hold a fixed number of equally-sized data elements. Individual elements are accessed by index using a consecutive range of integers. Some type of arrays allows to access individual elements using non consecutive values of any data types. Arrays can be classified as fixed-sized arrays (sometimes known as static arrays) whose size cannot change once their declaration is done, or dynamic arrays, which can be resized.

Fixed Arrays:

"Packed array" to refer to the dimensions declared before the object name and "unpacked array" refers to the dimensions declared after the object name.
SystemVerilog accepts a single number, as an alternative to a range, to specify the size of an unpacked array. That is, [size] becomes the same as [0:size-1].

int Array[8][32]; is the same as: int Array[0:7][0:31];

// Packed Arrays
reg [0:10] vari; // packed array of 4-bits
wire [31:0] [1:0] vari; // 2-dimensional packed array

// Unpacked Arrays
wire status [31:0]; // 1 dimensional unpacked array
wire status [32]; // 1 dimensional unpacked array

integer matrix[7:0][0:31][15:0]; // 3-dimensional unpacked array of integers
integer matrix[8][32][16]; // 3-dimensional unpacked array of integers

reg [31:0] registers1 [0:255]; // unpacked array of 256 registers; each
reg [31:0] registers2 [256]; // register is packed 32 bit wide

Operations On Arrays

The following operations can be performed on all arrays, packed or unpacked:

register1 [6][7:0] = `1; // Packed indexes can be sliced
register1 = ~register1 ; // Can operate on entire memory
register1 = register2 ; // Reading and writing the entire array
register1[7:4] = register2[3:0] // Reading and writing a slice of the array
register1[4+:i]= register2[4+;i] // Reading and writing a variable slice
if(register1 == register2) //Equality operations on the entire array
int n[1:2][1:3] = `{`{0,1,2},`{4,4,3}};// multidimensional assignment
int triple [1:3] = `{1:1, default:0}; // indexes 2 and 3 assigned 0

Accessing Individual Elements Of Multidimensional Arrays:

In a list of multi dimensions, the rightmost one varies most rapidly than the left most one. Packed dimension varies more rapidly than an unpacked.

In the following example, each dimension is having unique range and reading and writing to a element shows exactly which index corresponds to which dimension.

module index();
bit [1:5][10:16] foo [21:27][31:38];
initial
begin
foo[24][34][4][14] = 1;
$display(" foo[24][34][4][14] is %d ",foo[24][34][4][14] );
end
endmodule

The result of reading from an array with an out of the address bounds or if any bit in the address is X or Z shall return the default uninitialized value for the array element type.

As in Verilog, a comma-separated list of array declarations can be made. All arrays in the list shall have the same data type and the same packed array dimensions.

module array();
bit [1:5][10:16] foo1 [21:27][31:38],foo2 [31:27][33:38];
initial
begin
$display(" dimensions of foo1 is %d foo2 is %d",$dimensions(foo1),$dimensions(foo2) );
$display(" reading with out of bound resulted %d",foo1[100][100][100][100]);
$display(" reading with index x resulted %d",foo1[33][1'bx]);
end
endmodule
RESULT:

dimensions of foo1 is 4 foo2 is 4
reading with out of bound resulted x
reading with index x resulted x

bit [3:4][5:6]Array [0:2];

Accessing "Array[2]" will access 4 elements Array[2][3][5],Array[2][3][6],Array[2][4][5] and Array[2][4][6].
Accessing "Array[1][3]" will access 2 elements Array[1][3][5] and Array[1][3][6].
Accessing "Array[0][3][6]" will access one element.

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