# toArray

## Category
String

## Arity
**Unary** — `toArray <string>`.

```
toArray <string>
```

## Description
Converts a string to an array of character codes (ASCII/Unicode code points as integers). Each character becomes one integer element in the result array. Empty string → empty array.

## How It Works
Iterates each `char` in the string, casts to `int`, and collects into a new array. For characters above U+FFFF (surrogate pairs), each surrogate half is a separate element.

## Usage

### Basic conversion
```sqf
toArray "AB";                  // [65, 66]
toArray "Hello";               // [72, 101, 108, 108, 111]
toArray "";                    // []
```

### Character-by-character processing
```sqf
_codes = toArray _name;
_codes forEach {
    systemChat f"Char code: {_x}";
};
```

### Case checking via codes
```sqf
_codes = toArray _name;
_firstCode = _codes select 0;
_isUpper = _firstCode >= 65 && _firstCode <= 90;
```

### Round-trip with toString
```sqf
_original = "Test";
_codes = toArray _original;
_restored = toString _codes;   // "Test"
_original == _restored;        // true
```

## Thread Safety
ReadOnly — pure computation, returns new array. Safe from any scheduler.

## See Also
- [toString](toString.md) — reverse: array of codes to string
- [count](count.md) — string length
- [select](select.md) — character at index