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Sometimes being able to use a simple dictionary (vs crazy nested arrays) in max script can greatly simplify your code and can allow you to layout your logic in more manageable way.

Unfortunately maxscript doesn’t offer a native dictionary value type, and the .net equivalent “hashtable” is a pain to use in max. If you are not to keen on the use of .net hashtables you might want to try a custom struct like this one…

This dictionary struct uses “sorted keys” and “bsearch” to speed up the look up of keys and their values vs the “findItem” method that can be exponentially slower as as the number of keys grows in size.
take a look…

struct losDic
(
	private
	table = #(),

	fn binSort a b =
	(
		if a[1] > b[1] then 1
		else if a[1] < b[1] then -1
		else 0
	),
	fn formatDic dic level:0 spaces:4 =
	(
		strm = "\n" as stringStream
		padding = ""
		if level != 0 then
		(
			for a=1 to level do for b=1 to spaces do padding += " "
		)
		for k in (dic.keys()) do
		(
			val = dic.getK k
			case (classof val) of
			(
				(losDic):format "%%:\n%" padding k (formatDic val level:(level+1) spaces:spaces) to:strm
				default:format "%%:%\n" padding k val to:strm
			)
		)
		(strm as string)
	),	
	public
	fn count = keys.count,
	fn getK k = 
	(
		val = bsearch #(k) table binSort
		if val == undefined then return val
		val[2]

	),
	fn setK k v =
	(
		val = bsearch #(k) table binSort
		if val == undefined then
		(
			append table #(k,v)
			qsort table binSort
			return this
		)
		val[2] = v
		this
	),
	fn hasK k =
	(
		t = case (bsearch #(k) table binSort) of
		(
			(undefined):false
			default:true
		)
		t
	),
	fn delK k =
	(
		indx --findItem keysL (k as name)
		for i=1 to table.count where table[i][1] == k do
		(
			indx = i
			exit
		)
		if indx == 0 then throw ("there is no key "+k+" in dictionary")
		deleteItem table indx
		this
	),
	fn keys =
	(
		out = for k in table collect k[1]
		out
	),
	fn pprint =
	(
		print (formatDic this)
		ok
	)
)

Here’s an example of how it’s basic usage…

--make the dictionary
dic = losDic()
--set keys
dic.setK "pappa" 9999
--embeded dictonaries
dic.setK "powers" (losDic())
dic.setK "object" (sphere())
--set key in  the embeded dictionary
(dic.getK "powers").setK "lazerEyes" true
(dic.getK "powers").setK "bulletProof" true
--query the available keys
print "------keys------"
print (dic.keys())
print "----------------"

--loop throug a dictionary
print "print keys and values"
for k in dic.keys() do format "%:%\n" k (dic.getK k)

print "preaty print"
--prety print the dictionary
dic.pprint()

till next time!!