Making Lists: Arrays

An Array is an ordered list of items. You create an array using square brackets [], with each item in the list separated by a comma. This is similar to how arrays are defined in JSON and other common data formats. See how MON compares.

Arrays are perfect for collections of things, like a list of tags, a group of users, or a sequence of steps.

Simple Lists

You can create a simple list of primitive values like strings or numbers.

{
    // A list of strings
    tags: ["tutorial", "mon", "beginner"],

    // A list of numbers
    winning_numbers: [12, 45, 77, 81],
}

Lists of Objects

More powerfully, you can create a list where each item is an object. This is a fundamental pattern for structuring complex data.

{
    // A list of users, where each user is an object
    users: [
        {
            name: "Alice",
            role: "admin",
        },
        {
            name: "Bob",
            role: "viewer",
        },
    ],
}

Challenge 2: Your Favorite Things

Create a file named favorites.mon. Inside the root object, add a key named favorite_movies. The value should be an array where each item is an object representing a movie. Each movie object should have a title (String) and a release_year (Number).

---

Answer to Challenge 2

{
    favorite_movies: [
        {
            title: "The Matrix",
            release_year: 1999,
        },
        {
            title: "Inception",
            release_year: 2010,
        },
    ],
}

Excellent! You can now structure both single items and lists of items. Next, we’ll learn how to stop repeating ourselves by reusing data within a file.