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** **

**HOWMANY( **//label// ,//element//**)**

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| **HOWMANY** | Returns the number of dimensions for a designated element. |
| //label// | The label of a GROUP, QUEUE or RECORD. |
| //element// | A LONG constant or variable that identifies the ordinal position of the target element to examine. |

**HOWMANY** returns the number of dimensions the n'th field of a GROUP, QUEUE or RECORD. A multi-dimensioned field has its dimensions flattened.

**HOWMANY** will return zero (0) if you ask for the dimensions of a field within a dimensioned GROUP. To access the number of dimensions of such a field, you must first use GETGROUP to get one element of the dimensioned group.

| **Return Data Type:** | LONG |

**Example:**

**NestGroup  GROUP**

**subGroup    GROUP,DIM(2,2)**

**var1         LONG,DIM(3,3)**

**            END**

**           END**

**gr &GROUP**

**MyGroup  GROUP**

**var1      LONG,DIM(3,3)**

**var2      LONG,DIM(100)**

**var3      LONG,DIM(2,3,4)**

**         END**

** CODE**

**  HOWMANY(MyGroup, 1)    !Returns 9**

**  HOWMANY(MyGroup, 2)    !Returns 100**

**  HOWMANY(MyGroup, 3)    !Returns 24**

**  HOWMANY(NestGroup, 1)  !Returns 4**

**  HOWMANY(NestGroup, 2)  !Returns 0**

**  IF ISGROUP(NestGroup, 1)**

**    gr &= GETGROUP(NestGroup, 1, 1)**

**    HOWMANY(gr, 1)       !Returns 9**

**  END**

**See Also:**

[[isgroup return group type or not .htm|ISGROUP]]

[[getgroup return reference to group .htm|GETGROUP]]

[[what  return field from group .htm|WHAT]]

[[where  return field position in group .htm|WHERE]]

[[who  return field name from group .htm|WHO]]