null pointer in loop - c#

I am trying to make a program which can dispense change for a given amount. Basically I have a method to see if a given value can be met by the currencies in stock.
This is the loop:
private int check(int v)
{
int in = v;
for (int i = valueTable.Length; i >= 0; i--)//from biggest coin to smallest
{
for (int j = 0; j < supplyTable[i-1]; j++)//for the supply of the particular coin
{
if (in >= coinValueTable[i-1] && coinSupplyTable[i+1] > 0)
in -= coinValueTable[i-1];
}
}
return rt;
}
When running debug, it appears that the first iteration of the outer loop only establishes the second loop, and does not execute it. The inner loop is only executed on the outer loop's second iteration, essentially meaning that I miss the last value in the valueTable. I've played around a bit with the for loops, but it always seems to miss then ends of the array.
Any ideas as to why the inner loop doesn't run for the first iteration of the outerloop? Thanks in advance.

You have set coinSupplyTable[7] == 0, so naturally the first iteration, which takes the last element, has condition j < 0, which is immediately false and thus the loop does not run.
Nothing wrong there; no stock means no inner loop.
Also, your if condition inside the inner loop is not correct. You access coinSupplyTable[i+1], which will lead to an Index out of Range exception.
Finally, are you sure you need the inner loop? It seems to me that you only need the outer loop to iterate over each coin type, and then check the supply.

Related

Unity for loop try to access a destroyed GameObject

I'm working on a brickout game clone, so I'm trying to add a multiply the ball feature to the game. This Video shows the feature.
Here is my code:
//access to all active balls
Ball[] balls = FindObjectsOfType<Ball>();
//loop for the length of the balls
for (int i = 0; i <= balls.Length; i++)
{
if (balls.Length >= 1000)
{
return;
}
else
{
// here I'm trying to fix the issue by checking if the ball exists, so I will call the function if not. return. but console show me same message
if (balls[i] != null)
{
balls[i].CallM3x();
i++;
}
}
}
The unity console message is:
IndexOutOfRangeException: Index was outside the bounds of the array.
My code above is working fine, but the issue is some balls destroy before the for loop end its work by less than a second .
Any idea how to avoid this?
There are two fundamental issues with your loop:
you're looping up to i <= balls.Length which will always throw an error (there is no a[10] in an array of length 10).
you're incrementing i again within the loop, which will skip items
Change the loop condition to i < balls.Length and remove the i++ within the loop.
Also, you don't need to check if (balls.Length >= 1000) within the loop every time - you can check that before the loop (but what's the problem with a collection with more than 10,000 items?)
the issue is some balls destroy before the for loop end its work by less than a second
I don't see how this can be a problem. You're creating an array of references that you're looping over. Even if items are destroyed within the game, the object references still exist within your array. There may be some other flag to tell you that an object is destroyed (I am not a Unity expert), but they would not change to null inside your array.
A simple way to avoid the issue of re-referencing objects you have deleted in a loop is by counting i down from balls.Length to 0 instead of up from 0 to balls.Length.
for (int i = balls.Length - 1; i >= 0; i--)
Also, you might want to look again at your for-loop: you are going up to <= balls.Length, allowing the highest index to be = balls.Length. That index is out of bounds though, because we start counting at 0. I suggest using < instead of <= here.
Ball[] balls = FindObjectsOfType<Ball>();
for (int i = 0; i < balls.Length; i++)
{
if (balls.Length >= 1000)
{
return;
}
else
{
if (balls[i] != null)
{
balls[i].CallM3x();
// i++; <- This is your problem. Remove it.
}
}
}

C# While Loop vs For Loop?

In C# a question has been bugging me for a while and its what is that actual major difference between a While and For Loop. Is it just purely readability ie; everything you can essentially do in a for loop can be done in a while loop , just in different places. So take these examples:
int num = 3;
while (num < 10)
{
Console.WriteLine(num);
num++;
}
vs
for (int x = 3; x < 10; x++)
{
Console.WriteLine(x);
}
Both code loops produce the same outcome and is the only difference between the two that the for loop forces you to declare a new variable and also set the iteration value each loop cycle at the start? Maybe I'm missing something else in terms of any major differences but it would good if someone can set me straight regarding this. Thanks.
is the only difference between the two that the for loop forces you to declare a new variable and also set the iteration value each loop cycle at the start?
The for loop forces you to nothing. You can omit any of the 3 elements. The smallest form is
for(;;) // forever
{
DoSomething();
}
But you can use the 3 elements to write more concise code:
for(initializer; loop-condition; update-expression)
{
controlled-statements;
}
is equivalent to:
{
initializer;
while(loop-condition)
{
controlled-statements;
continue_target: // goto here to emulate continue
update-expression;
}
}
Note the outer {} braces, in for(int i = 0; ...; ...) the i is local to the for-loop. A clear benefit.
But the major difference in usage is when you call continue; inside the loop, much easier to get the logic wrong in a while-loop than in a for-loop.
Yes, they're exactly the same in the background (in Assembly, that is).
Usually, it is more common to use the for loop when the number of repeats is known and we're not going to change our counter(index).
while loop also has the advantage of a sentinel loop which is easier for example when taking inputs from a user until something specific is given.
Fundamentally, the differences are:
For loop knows in advance how many times it will loop, whereas a while loop doesn’t know.
For loop has an initialization step whereas a while loop doesn’t
For loop uses a “step value” or increment/decrement step, whereas a while loop doesn’t.
Here is an example of a Java for loop looping from 0 to 99 and printing out the numbers. Notice how the loop is initialized and incremented as part of the for loop structure.
for(int i=0; i<100; i++) {
System.out.println(i);
}
Here is an example of a Java while loop printing out all the elements in an integer array. Notice how the loop variable is initialized before the loop and is incremented inside the loop body.
int [] intArray = {1, 3, 5, 7, 9};
int i=0;
while(i<intArray.length) {
System.out.println(intArray[i++]);
}
When you are sure what will be the end value or how much the loop should execute(until what value), use 'for' loop, otherwise use 'while' loop.

for loop ends prematurely when objects are removed

Hi I have a problem with a for loop.
It looks like this
for (int i = 0; i < ObjectManager.Instance.Objects.Count; i++)
{
if (ObjectManager.Instance.Objects[i] is Asteroid)
{
ObjectManager.Instance.Objects.Remove(ObjectManager.Instance.Objects[i]);
}
}
But the count gets shorter while I remove objects, which causes the loop to end prematurely. Is there a way to do this without a bunch of extra loops.
Why don't you loop backward?
// Just change the order from Count - 1 down to 0
for (int i = ObjectManager.Instance.Objects.Count - 1; i >= 0; --i)
{
if (ObjectManager.Instance.Objects[i] is Asteroid)
{
ObjectManager.Instance.Objects.Remove(ObjectManager.Instance.Objects[i]);
}
}
In case you have to loop forward (e.g. if Instances should be deleted in the order they are created because they are depend on each other) you can modify for loop in this way:
for (int i = 0; i < ObjectManager.Instance.Objects.Count;) // <- No increment here
if (ObjectManager.Instance.Objects[i] is Asteroid)
ObjectManager.Instance.Objects.Remove(ObjectManager.Instance.Objects[i]);
else
i += 1; // <- Increment should be here!
Yet another possibility is Linq:
ObjectManager.Instance.Objects.RemoveAll(item => item is Asteroid);
Three options:
If ObjectManager.Instance.Objects is a List<T>, use List<T>.RemoveAll with a predicate, making your code much simpler:
// This replaces your whole loop...
ObjectManager.Instance.Objects.RemoveAll(x => x is Asteroid);
Count from the end of the collection rather than from the start, so that you don't need to adjust the index afterwards:
for (int i = ObjectManager.Instance.Objects.Count - 1; i >= 0; i--)
Just decrement i after calling Remove, so that you'll look at the right index on the next iteration.
Note that in the second and third options your code will be a lot simpler to read if you extract the expression ObjectManager.Instance.Objects into a local variable before you use it 4 times. Also consider using RemoveAt(i) rather than Remove(instances[i]), assuming RemoveAt is available for the type you're using.

How is the 'e--' expression used in this simple exponent example?

I understand every cog in this code with the exception of one part: the "e--;" within the While loop. Can anybody explain its importance to me?
public class Power
{
public static void Main()
{
int e;
int result;
for(int i=0; i < 10; i++)
{
result = 1;
e = i;
while(e > 0)
{
result *= 2;
e--;
}
Console.WriteLine(string.Format("2 to the {0} power is {1}", i, result));
}
}
}
You're looking at a postfix decrement operator.
It evaluates the value of e and then subtracts one from the value; since it's a standalone statement, it simply subtracts one from e's value.
The idea here is to simply multiply result by 2 i times. It does this by setting e to i, subtracting one each iteration of the loop, and looping while it's positive. This means that the while loop will always loop i times. You could just as easily (and arguably more clearly) write:
for(int e = 0; e < i; e++)
result *= 2;
while(e > 0)
This means that your loop will run as long as e is greater than zero. e-- is decrementing e's value on each iteration. If you didn't decrement it inside of your loop then you will get an infinite loop because your condition will become always true and your loop won't end.
The e-- just decrements the value of e. It is equivalent to e = e - 1;.
The reason you decrement the value is to eventually exit of the while loop; once you set e to the value of i, the loop will run indefinitely unless the value of e becomes less or equal to zero, which makes the while loop condition of e > 0 false.
In the larger picture, you are using e to stored the current value of i and then use it to execute i times the statement result *= 2;. In other words, you are using e to count how many times the variable result needs to be multiplied by 2 during the current iteration of the outer for loop.
This is similar to doing something like,
for (int i=0; i < 10; i++)
{
result = 1;
e = 0;
for (e = i; e > 0; e--)
{
result *= 2;
}
}
Since the while loop is really acting as a for loop.
e is your counter variable. It will repeat the while loop until the result has been multiplied the specified number of times (which is whatever i is when the loop started). As others have stated, e-- just decrements the value of e by one. You can read more here. This means that, in the code you provided, it will multiply result by 2 e times which mathematically will compute 2^i (i.e. 2^0 = 1, 2^1 = 2, 2^2 = 4, etc.).
e-- means it will decrease 1 in each loop, e++ will increase 1
check this article http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/36x43w8w.aspx

What is the difference between for and foreach?

What is the major difference between for and foreach loops?
In which scenarios can we use for and not foreach and vice versa.
Would it be possible to show with a simple program?
Both seem the same to me. I can't differentiate them.
a for loop is a construct that says "perform this operation n. times".
a foreach loop is a construct that says "perform this operation against each value/object in this IEnumerable"
You can use foreach if the object you want to iterate over implements the IEnumerable interface. You need to use for if you can access the object only by index.
I'll tryto answer this in a more general approach:
foreach is used to iterate over each element of a given set or list (anything implementing IEnumerable) in a predefined manner. You can't influence the exact order (other than skipping entries or canceling the whole loop), as that's determined by the container.
foreach (String line in document) { // iterate through all elements of "document" as String objects
Console.Write(line); // print the line
}
for is just another way to write a loop that has code executed before entering the loop and once after every iteration. It's usually used to loop through code a given number of times. Contrary to foreach here you're able to influence the current position.
for (int i = 0, j = 0; i < 100 && j < 10; ++i) { // set i and j to 0, then loop as long as i is less than 100 or j is less than 10 and increase i after each iteration
if (i % 8 == 0) { // skip all numbers that can be divided by 8 and count them in j
++j
continue;
}
Console.Write(i);
}
Console.Write(j);
If possible and applicable, always use foreach rather than for (assuming there's some array index). Depending on internal data organisation, foreach can be a lot faster than using for with an index (esp. when using linked lists).
Everybody gave you the right answer with regard to foreach, i.e. it's a way to loop through the elements of something implementing IEnumerable.
On the other side, for is much more flexible than what is shown in the other answers. In fact, for is used to executes a block of statements for as long as a specified condition is true.
From Microsoft documentation:
for (initialization; test; increment)
statement
initialization
Required. An expression. This expression is executed only once, before the loop is executed.
test
Required. A Boolean expression. If test is true, statement is executed. If test if false, the loop is terminated.
increment
Required. An expression. The increment expression is executed at the end of every pass through the loop.
statement
Optional. Statement to be executed if test is true. Can be a compound statement.
This means that you can use it in many different ways. Classic school examples are the sum of the numbers from 1 to 10:
int sum = 0;
for (int i = 0; i <= 10; i++)
sum = sum + i;
But you can use it to sum the numbers in an Array, too:
int[] anArr = new int[] { 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21 };
int sum = 0;
for (int i = 0; i < anArr.Length; i++)
sum = sum + anArr[i];
(this could have been done with a foreach, too):
int[] anArr = new int[] { 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21 };
int sum = 0;
foreach (int anInt in anArr)
sum = sum + anInt;
But you can use it for the sum of the even numbers from 1 to 10:
int sum = 0;
for (int i = 0; i <= 10; i = i + 2)
sum = sum + i;
And you can even invent some crazy thing like this one:
int i = 65;
for (string s = string.Empty; s != "ABC"; s = s + Convert.ToChar(i++).ToString()) ;
Console.WriteLine(s);
for loop:
1) need to specify the loop bounds( minimum or maximum).
2) executes a statement or a block of statements repeatedly
until a specified expression evaluates to false.
Ex1:-
int K = 0;
for (int x = 1; x <= 9; x++){
k = k + x ;
}
foreach statement:
1)do not need to specify the loop bounds minimum or maximum.
2)repeats a group of embedded statements for
a)each element in an array
or b) an object collection.
Ex2:-
int k = 0;
int[] tempArr = new int[] { 0, 2, 3, 8, 17 };
foreach (int i in tempArr){
k = k + i ;
}
foreach is almost equivalent to :
var enumerator = list.GetEnumerator();
var element;
while(enumerator.MoveNext()){
element = enumerator.Current;
}
and in order to implemetn a "foreach" compliant pattern, this need to provide a class that have a method GetEnumerator() which returns an object that have a MoveNext() method, a Reset() method and a Current property.
Indeed, you do not need to implement neither IEnumerable nor IEnumerator.
Some derived points:
foreach does not need to know the collection length so allows to iterate through a "stream" or a kind of "elements producer".
foreach calls virtual methods on the iterator (the most of the time) so can perform less well than for.
It depends on what you are doing, and what you need.
If you are iterating through a collection of items, and do not care about the index values then foreach is more convenient, easier to write and safer: you can't get the number of items wrong.
If you need to process every second item in a collection for example, or process them ion the reverse order, then a for loop is the only practical way.
The biggest differences are that a foreach loop processes an instance of each element in a collection in turn, while a for loop can work with any data and is not restricted to collection elements alone. This means that a for loop can modify a collection - which is illegal and will cause an error in a foreach loop.
For more detail, see MSDN : foreach and for
Difference Between For and For Each Loop in C#
For Loops executes a block of code until an expression returns false while ForEach loop executed a block of code through the items in object collections.
For loop can execute with object collections or without any object collections while ForEach loop can execute with object collections only.
The for loop is a normal loop construct which can be used for multiple purposes where as foreach is designed to work only on Collections or IEnumerables object.
foreach is useful if you have a array or other IEnumerable Collection of data. but for can be used for access elements of an array that can be accessed by their index.
A for loop is useful when you have an indication or determination, in advance, of how many times you want a loop to run. As an example, if you need to perform a process for each day of the week, you know you want 7 loops.
A foreach loop is when you want to repeat a process for all pieces of a collection or array, but it is not important specifically how many times the loop runs. As an example, you are formatting a list of favorite books for users. Every user may have a different number of books, or none, and we don't really care how many it is, we just want the loop to act on all of them.
The for loop executes a statement or a block of statements repeatedly until a specified expression evaluates to false.
There is a need to specify the loop bounds (minimum or maximum). Following is a code example of a simple for loop that starts 0 till <= 5.
we look at foreach in detail. What looks like a simple loop on the outside is actually a complex data structure called an enumerator:
An enumerator is a data structure with a Current property, a MoveNext method, and a Reset method. The Current property holds the value of the current element, and every call to MoveNext advances the enumerator to the next item in the sequence.
Enumerators are great because they can handle any iterative data structure. In fact, they are so powerful that all of LINQ is built on top of enumerators.
But the disadvantage of enumerators is that they require calls to Current and MoveNext for every element in the sequence. All those method calls add up, especially in mission-critical code.
Conversely, the for-loop only has to call get_Item for every element in the list. That’s one method call less than the foreach-loop, and the difference really shows.
So when should you use a foreach-loop, and when should you use a for-loop?
Here’s what you need to do:
When you’re using LINQ, use foreach
When you’re working with very large computed sequences of values, use foreach
When performance isn’t an issue, use foreach
But if you want top performance, use a for-loop instead
The major difference between the for and foreach loop in c# we understand by its working:
The for loop:
The for loop's variable always be integer only.
The For Loop executes the statement or block of statements repeatedly until specified expression evaluates to false.
In for loop we have to specify the loop's boundary ( maximum or minimum).-------->We can say this is the limitation of the for loop.
The foreach loop:
In the case of the foreach loop the variable of the loop while be same as the type of values under the array.
The Foreach statement repeats a group of embedded statements for each element in an array or an object collection.
In foreach loop, You do not need to specify the loop bounds minimum or maximum.--->
here we can say that this is the advantage of the for each loop.
I prefer the FOR loop in terms of performance. FOREACH is a little slow when you go with more number of items.
If you perform more business logic with the instance then FOREACH performs faster.
Demonstration:
I created a list of 10000000 instances and looping with FOR and FOREACH.
Time took to loop:
FOREACH -> 53.852ms
FOR -> 28.9232ms
Below is the sample code.
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
List<TestClass> lst = new List<TestClass>();
for (int i = 1; i <= 10000000; i++)
{
TestClass obj = new TestClass() {
ID = i,
Name = "Name" + i.ToString()
};
lst.Add(obj);
}
DateTime start = DateTime.Now;
foreach (var obj in lst)
{
//obj.ID = obj.ID + 1;
//obj.Name = obj.Name + "1";
}
DateTime end = DateTime.Now;
var first = end.Subtract(start).TotalMilliseconds;
start = DateTime.Now;
for (int j = 0; j<lst.Count;j++)
{
//lst[j].ID = lst[j].ID + 1;
//lst[j].Name = lst[j].Name + "1";
}
end = DateTime.Now;
var second = end.Subtract(start).TotalMilliseconds;
}
}
public class TestClass
{
public long ID { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
}
If I uncomment the code inside the loop:
Then, time took to loop:
FOREACH -> 2564.1405ms
FOR -> 2753.0017ms
Conclusion
If you do more business logic with the instance, then FOREACH is recommended.
If you are not doing much logic with the instance, then FOR is recommended.
Many answers are already there, I just need to identify one difference which is not there.
for loop is fail-safe while foreach loop is fail-fast.
Fail-fast iteration throws ConcurrentModificationException if iteration and modification are done at the same time in object.
However, fail-safe iteration keeps the operation safe from failing even if the iteration goes in infinite loop.
public class ConcurrentModification {
public static void main(String[] args) {
List<String> str = new ArrayList<>();
for(int i=0; i<1000; i++){
str.add(String.valueOf(i));
}
/**
* this for loop is fail-safe. It goes into infinite loop but does not fail.
*/
for(int i=0; i<str.size(); i++){
System.out.println(str.get(i));
str.add(i+ " " + "10");
}
/**
* throws ConcurrentModificationexception
for(String st: str){
System.out.println(st);
str.add("10");
}
*/
/* throws ConcurrentModificationException
Iterator<String> itr = str.iterator();
while(itr.hasNext()) {
System.out.println(itr.next());
str.add("10");
}*/
}
}
Hope this helps to understand the difference between for and foreach loop through different angle.
I found a good blog to go through the differences between fail-safe and fail-fast, if anyone interested:
You can use the foreach for an simple array like
int[] test = { 0, 1, 2, 3, ...};
And you can use the for when you have a 2D array
int[][] test = {{1,2,3,4},
{5,2,6,5,8}};
foreach syntax is quick and easy. for syntax is a little more complex, but is also more flexible.
foreach is useful when iterating all of the items in a collection. for is useful when iterating overall or a subset of items.
The foreach iteration variable which provides each collection item, is READ-ONLY, so we can't modify the items as they are iterated. Using the for syntax, we can modify the items as needed.
Bottom line- use foreach to quickly iterate all of the items in a collection. Use for to iterate a subset of the items of the collection or to modify the items as they are iterated.
simple difference between for and foreach
for loop is working with values. it must have condition then increment and intialization also. you have to knowledge about 'how many times loop repeated'.
foreach is working with objects and enumaretors. no need to knowledge how many times loop repeated.
The foreach statement repeats a group of embedded statements for each element in an array or an object collection that implements the System.Collections.IEnumerable or System.Collections.Generic.IEnumerable interface. The foreach statement is used to iterate through the collection to get the information that you want, but can not be used to add or remove items from the source collection to avoid unpredictable side effects. If you need to add or remove items from the source collection, use a for loop.
One important thing related with foreach is that , foreach iteration variable cannot be updated(or assign new value) in loop body.
for example :
List<string> myStrlist = new List<string>() { "Sachin", "Ganguly", "Dravid" };
foreach(string item in myStrlist)
{
item += " cricket"; // ***Not Possible***
}

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