<?xml version="1.0"?>
<page xmlns="http://projectmallard.org/1.0/"
      type="topic"
      style="function"
      xmlns:api="http://projectmallard.org/experimental/api/"
      xmlns:ui="http://projectmallard.org/experimental/ui/"
      id="bson_append_array_begin">
  <info>
    <link type="guide" xref="bson_t" group="function"/>
  </info>
  <title>bson_append_array_begin()</title>

  <section id="synopsis">
    <title>Synopsis</title>
    <synopsis><code mime="text/x-csrc"><![CDATA[bool
bson_append_array_begin (bson_t     *bson,
                         const char *key,
                         int         key_length,
                         bson_t     *child);
]]></code></synopsis>
  </section>

  <section id="parameters">
    <title>Parameters</title>
    <table>
      <tr><td><p>bson</p></td><td><p>A <code xref="bson_t">bson_t</code>.</p></td></tr>
      <tr><td><p>key</p></td><td><p>A string containing the name for the key.</p></td></tr>
      <tr><td><p>key_length</p></td><td><p>The length of <code>key</code> or -1 to call <code>strlen()</code>.</p></td></tr>
      <tr><td><p>child</p></td><td><p>A <code xref="bson_t">bson_t</code>.</p></td></tr>
    </table>
  </section>

  <section id="description">
    <title>Description</title>
    <p>The <code xref="bson_append_array_begin">bson_append_array_begin()</code> function shall begin appending an array field to <code>bson</code>. This allows for incrementally building a sub-array. Doing so will generally yield better performance as you will serialize to a single buffer. When done building the sub-array, the caller <em>MUST</em> call <code xref="bson_append_array_end">bson_append_array_end()</code>.</p>
  </section>

  <section id="return">
    <title>Returns</title>
    <p>true if the operation was applied successfully, otherwise false and <code>bson</code> should be discarded.</p>
  </section>
</page>
