Atom
An atom or an atomic value denotes a single element -- a number, text string, a handle, a reference, or the value Null, i.e. not an array (table).
Atomic values form the cells of arrays but they may also stand by themselves as values, e.g. the result of evaluating 1+2 is the atomic value 3, which is not an array. The Title attribute of any object is an atomic text value.
Because an atom can be seen as a zero-dimensional array, atoms are functionally equivalent to arrays with zero indexes, enabling the conversion of atoms to arrays in some cases. Nevertheless, in standard usage the term atom or atomic value is used to distinguish simple values from "complex" ones like arrays or lists (one-dimensional arrays).
Because atoms are not indexed, array abstraction is not always possible on atomic values without a special treatment, see Atom parameters and array abstraction for details.
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