The present invention relates to an indicator-array-based anion detection method used for the detection of multiple anions in water. Under the circumstance of certain concentration of an organic dye, chelates of different color gradients can be obtained by adding different amounts of same metal ion, and a sensor array is constructed by different concentrations of metal chelates; with the aid of the principle that anions in a water solution can be reacted with a metal to precipitate and even further reacted to produce a complex, metal ions can be replaced from the colored chelates, and the color changes. Due to different reaction equilibrium constants of different anions and a same indicator, the purpose of distinguishing of the anions can be achieved. By use of the method, whether S<2->, F<->, Cl<->, Br<->, I<->, CrO4<2->, PO4<3->, and C2O4<2-> anions in water exceed sewage or drinking water national discharge standards can be quickly determined, and by use of cluster analysis, principal component analysis and other mathematical statistic methods, unknown anions can be qualitatively or semi-quantitatively analyzed.