How is data from Arrays and sutch, in contracts actually stored in the blockchain?

Question

How is data from instance variables in contracts actually stored in the blockchain? Say I have a simple contract like the example Token contract:

contract MyToken {
    /* This creates an array with all balances */
    mapping (address => uint256) public balanceOf;

    /* Initializes contract with initial supply tokens to the creator of the contract */
    function MyToken(
        uint256 initialSupply
        ) {
        balanceOf[msg.sender] = initialSupply;              // Give the creator all initial tokens
    }

    /* Send coins */
    function transfer(address _to, uint256 _value) {
        if (balanceOf[msg.sender] < _value) throw;           // Check if the sender has enough
        if (balanceOf[_to] + _value < balanceOf[_to]) throw; // Check for overflows
        balanceOf[msg.sender] -= _value;                     // Subtract from the sender
        balanceOf[_to] += _value;                            // Add the same to the recipient
    }
}

Where is the data in balanceOf stored? How might I be able to get this information without adding a function to the Contract just to return say the balance for an address?

Answer 1

1-the data is stored in the contract's storage (which is located in the blockchain) every contract has its own storage think of it as an associated disk.

2-you can get the data using whether public e.g

 mapping (address => uint256) public balanceOf;

so every time you could get the result without the need of calling a function (solidity set a getter for you).

or you could set a getter (without declaring your variable public) to return the balance of any address you provide :

    function balance_get(address add) returns (uint256)
{
return balanceOf[ add];
}