Looks like a bug (or undocumented limitation) of TYPE() function. It works if you retrieve stored object first.
The ALEN works fine if you reference collection correctly.

DEFINE CLASS obox as Collection 
	PROCEDURE addball
		LPARAMETERS toIn
		this.Add(toIn)
		? this.Item(1).alist[1], ;
			TYPE("this.Item(1).alist",1), ;
			ALEN(this.Item(1).alist)
		* Type() works here
		oBall = this.Item(1)
		? TYPE("oBall.alist",1)
	
	ENDPROC 
ENDDEFINE

>Is there a way to access an array as an array within an object once you stick it into a collection?
>
>The function alen() fails when I use it on an array property within an object that is added to a collection object. The code below shows the scenario. The first messagebox shows that the type of aList is "C". When I try to access the aList of the object inside the collection, I get type "U". I must be missing something....
>
>Thanks in advance...
>
>George Scapin
>
>

>mybox = CREATEOBJECT("obox")
>myball1=CREATEOBJECT("oball", "1 inch", "blue/white", "hard")
>mybox.addball(myball1)
>
>DEFINE CLASS oball as Custom
>	PROCEDURE init
>		LPARAMETERS cSize, cColor, cHardness
>		this.AddProperty('aList(1)')
>		DIMENSION this.alist[3,2]
>		this.alist[1,1] = "SIZE"
>		this.alist[1,2] = cSize
>		this.alist[2,1] = "COLOR"
>		this.alist[2,2] = cColor
>		this.alist[3,1] = "HARDNESS"						
>		this.alist[3,2] = cHardness
>	ENDPROC
>	
>ENDDEFINE
>
>DEFINE CLASS obox as Collection
>	PROCEDURE addball
>		LPARAMETERS toIn
>		MESSAGEBOX(TYPE("toIn.alist",1))
>		this.Add(toIn)
>		MESSAGEBOX(TYPE("mybox(1).alist",1))
>	ENDPROC
>ENDDEFINE
>