Develop Reference

Sorting List Array based on an index of array

I want to sort a List Array on the basis of an array item.
I have a List Array of Strings as below:
List<String>[] MyProjects = new List<String>[20];
Through a loop, I have added five strings
(Id, Name, StartDate, EndDate, Status)
to each of the 20 projects from another detailed List source.
for(int i = 0; i<20; i++){
MyProjects[i].Add(DetailedProjectList.Id.ToString());
MyProjects[i].Add(DetailedProjectList.Name);
MyProjects[i].Add(DetailedProjectList.StartDate);
MyProjects[i].Add(DetailedProjectList.EndDate);
MyProjects[i].Add(DetailedProjectList.Status)}
The Status values are
"Slow", "Normal", "Fast", "Suspended" and "" for unknown status.
Based on Status, I want to sort MyProject List Array.
What I have done is that I have created another List as below
List<string> sortProjectsBy = new List<string>(){"Slow", "Normal", "Fast", "", "Suspended"};
I tried as below to sort, however unsuccessful.
MyProjects = MyProjects.OrderBy(x => sortProjectsBy.IndexOf(4));
Can anyone hint in the right direction. Thanks.

I suggest you to create class Project and then add all the fields inside it you need. It's much nicer and scalable in the future. Then create a List or an Array of projects and use the OrderBy() function to sort based on the field you want.
List<Project> projects = new List<>();
// Fill the list...
projects.OrderBy(project => project.Status);
The field Status has to be a primitive type or needs to implement the interface IComparable in order for the sorting to work. I suggest you add an enum for Status with int values.

First consider maybe to use Enum for status and put it in a different file lite (utils or something) - better to work like that.
enum Status {"Slow"=1, "Normal", "Fast", "", "Suspend"}
Now about the filtering you want to achieve do it like this (you need to tell which attribute of x you are referring to. In this case is status)
MyProjects = MyProjects.OrderBy(x => x.status == enum.Suspend);
Read about enums :
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/csharp/language-reference/keywords/enum
Read about lambda expressions :
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/csharp/programming-guide/statements-expressions-operators/lambda-expressions

First of all, storing project details as List is not adivisable. You need to create a Custom Class to represent them.
For example,
public class DetailedProjectList
{
public string Name {get;set;}
public eStatus Status {get;set;}
// rest of properties
}
Then You can use
var result = MyProjects.OrderBy(x=> sortProjectsBy.IndexOf(x.Status));
For example
List<string> sortProjectsBy = new List<string>(){"Slow", "Normal", "Fast", "", "Suspended"};
var MyProjects= new List<DetailedProjectList>{
new DetailedProjectList{Name="abc1", Status="Fast"},
new DetailedProjectList{Name="abc2", Status="Normal"},
new DetailedProjectList{Name="abc3", Status="Slow"},
};
var result = MyProjects.OrderBy(x=> sortProjectsBy.IndexOf(x.Status));
Output
abc3 Slow
abc2 Normal
abc1 Fast
A better approach thought would be to use Enum to represent Status.
public enum eStatus
{
Slow,
Normal,
Fast,
Unknown,
Suspended
}
Then your code can be simplified as
var MyProjects= new List<DetailedProjectList>{
new DetailedProjectList{Name="abc1", Status=eStatus.Fast},
new DetailedProjectList{Name="abc2", Status=eStatus.Normal},
new DetailedProjectList{Name="abc3", Status=eStatus.Slow},
};
var result = MyProjects.OrderBy(x=> x.Status);

Ok so you have a collection of 20 items. Based on them you need to create a list of strings(20 DetailedProjectList items).
What you can do to solve your problem is to SORT YOUR COLLECTION before you create your list of strings. In this way your list of strings will be sorted.
But your code is not optimal at all. So you should concider optimization on many levels.

Lets say you have ProjectDetail class as follow:
private class ProjectDetail
{
public int Id {get;set;}
public string Name {get;set;}
DateTime StartDate {get;set;} = DateTime.Now;
DateTime EndDate {get;set;} = DateTime.Now;
public string Status {get;set;}
public string toString => $"{Id} - {Name} - {StartDate} - {EndDate} - {Status}";
}
Notice that I have added a toString attribute to make things easier, and I also have added default values.
Then your program could be like:
static void Main(string[] args)
{
var projectDetails = MockProjectItems();
Console.WriteLine("Before sortig:");
foreach (var item in projectDetails)
{
Console.WriteLine(item.toString);
}
var myProjects = projectDetails.OrderBy(p => p.Status).Select(p => p.toString);
Console.WriteLine("\n\nAfter sorting:");
foreach (var item in myProjects)
{
Console.WriteLine(item);
}
}
where the helper method is
private static List<ProjectDetail> MockProjectItems()
{
var items = new List<ProjectDetail>(20);
for(int i = 0; i < 20 ; i += 4){
items.Add(new ProjectDetail{Id = i, Name = "RandomName "+i, Status = "Slow"});
items.Add(new ProjectDetail{Id = i+1, Name = "RandomName "+(i+1), Status = "Normal"});
items.Add(new ProjectDetail{Id = i+2, Name = "RandomName "+(i+2), Status = "Fast"});
items.Add(new ProjectDetail{Id = i+3, Name = "RandomName "+(i+3), Status = "Suspended"});
}
return items;
}
Then your program should print the following:

Deleting an array element while moving others down?

I'm really new to programming, so take this with a grain of salt.
I've made 2 arrays that correspond to eachother; One is a Name array and one is a Phone Number array. The idea is that the spot [1] in NameArray corresponds to spot [1] in the PhoneArray. In other words, I need to keep these 'pairings' in tact.
I'm trying to make a function that deletes one of the spots in the array, and shifts everything down one, as to fill the space left empty by the deleted element.
namearray = namearray.Where(f => f != iNum).ToArray();
is what I've tried, with iNum being the number corresponding to the element marked for deletion in the array.
I've also tried converting it to a list, removing the item, then array-ing it again.
var namelist = namearray.ToList();
var phonelist = phonearray.ToList();
namelist.Remove(txtName.Text);
phonelist.Remove(txtPhone.Text);
namearray = namelist.ToArray();
phonearray = phonelist.ToArray();
lbName.Items.Clear();
lbPhone.Items.Clear();
lbName.Items.AddRange(namearray);
lbPhone.Items.AddRange(phonearray);
with txtName.Text and txtPhone.Text being the strings for deletion in the corresponding list boxes.
Can someone suggest a better way to do it / What I'm doing wrong / How to fix?
Thanks guys
-Zack

A better way would be to have an array of a class that contains a Name and Phone Number object:
public class PersonData
{
public string Name { get; set; }
public string Phone { get; set; }
}
public PersonData[] data;
That way, instead of keeping two arrays in sync, it's one array with all the appropriate data.

Try a loop through both arrays, moving the values of each down an index each time.
Start the loop at the index of the value you want to delete. So you would find the IndexOf(T) the value you want, storing it as deleteIndex and run the loop starting from that index.
When you hit the end of the array, set the last value as null or string.Empty (depending what value type the array holds).
A bit like this:
var deleteIndex = namearray.IndexOf("TheStringYouWantToDelete");
for (int i = deleteIndex; i < namearray.Length; i++)
{
if (i == namearray.Length - 1) // The "last" item in the array.
{
namearray[i] = string.Empty; // Or null, or your chosen "empty" value.
phonearray[i] = string.Empty; // Or null, or your chosen "empty" value.
}
else
{
namearray[i] = namearray[i+1];
phonearray[i] = phonearray[i+1];
}
}
This will work for deleting and moving values 'down' in index.
You could also rewrite the code for moving them the other way, as it would work similarly.
Reordering them completely? Different ball game...
Hope this helps.

If the namearray and phonearray contain strings and you know the index of the element to remove (iNum) then you need to use the overload of the Where extension that takes a second parameter, the index of the current element in the evaluation
namearray = namearray.Where((x, y) => y != iNum).ToArray();
However the suggestion to use classes for your task is the correct one. Namearray and Phonearray (and whatever else you need to handle in future) are to be thought as properties of a Person class and instead of using arrays use a List<Person>
public class Person
{
public string FirstName {get; set;}
public string LastName {get; set;}
public string Phone {get; set;}
}
List<Person> people = new List<Person>()
{
{new Person() {FirstName="Steve", LastName="OHara", Phone="123456"}},
{new Person() {FirstName="Mark", LastName="Noname", Phone="789012"}}
};
In this scenarion removing an item knowing the LastName could be written as
people = people.Where(x => x.LastName != "OHara").ToList();
(or as before using the index in the list of the element to remove)
people = people.Where((x, y) => y != iNum).ToArray();

The other answers provide some better design suggestions, but if you're using ListBoxes and want to stick with arrays, you can do this to synchronize them:
int idx = lbName.Items.IndexOf(txtName.Text);
if (idx > -1)
{
lbName.Items.RemoveAt(idx);
lbPhone.Items.RemoveAt(idx);
}
namearray = lbName.Items.Cast<string>().ToArray<string>();
phonearray = lbPhone.Items.Cast<string>().ToArray<string>();

Use a dictionary instead.
Dictionary<string, string> phoneBook = new Dictionary<string, string>();
phoneBook["Foo"] = "1234567890";
phoneBook["Bar"] = "0987654321";
phoneBook.Remove("Bar");

Can I turn an array of Strings into an array of substring arrays?

I have a text file that contains product information on each line, in the form of "productCode,productName,amountInStock,etc.."
I've used File.ReadAllLines to store each line as an element in an array, and now I'm using those strings to assign values to a list of product structs.
Here is the code being used to split those strings from the array into substrings:
foreach (String line in readProducts)
{
productData = line.Split(',');
readProducts[foreachCount] = productData;
foreachCount++;
}
Which gives me this error in Visual Studio:
Cannot implicitly convert type 'string[]' to 'string'
What would be the best way to accomplish this task, assuming that I must use structs rather than classes?

Use this way
List<string[]> readProducts = new List<string[]>();
foreach (String line in readProducts)
{
productData = line.Split(',');
readProducts.Add(productData);
}

Here is a better option for you:
Let product be the class, contains properties such as productCode, productName,amountInStock,etc.. as you mentioned in the question. you can create a list of product and directly assign the input values to the list as like the following:
string path="path here"
List<product> ProductList = new List<product>();
foreach (string line in File.ReadAllLines(path))
{
string[] productDetails = line.Split(',');
ProductList.Add(new product() { productCode = productDetails[0], productName = productDetails[1] });
}
Where the Product class looks like:
public class product
{
public string productCode { get; set; }
public string productName { get; set; }
// rest of properties
}

You can use Select to project to a new collection:
var allItems = readProducts.Select(line => line.Split(',')); // collection of string arrays
or to project to a new type:
var allProducts = readProducts.Select(line => line.Split(',')) // collection of string arrays
.Select(array => new Product {
productCode = array[0],
productName = array[1],
amountInStock = array[2],
// etc.
}); // collection of Products

Using System and jagged arrays, I was able to solve the problem. Here is the code used in the working program.
int i = 0;
String[][] allProducts = new String[readProducts.Length][];
var parsedProduct = readProducts.Select(item => item.Split(','));
foreach (var item in parsedProduct)
{
allProducts[i] = item;
i++;
}
allProducts[][] is a jagged array. Otherwise known as an Array of Arrays.
parsedProduct is similar to the jagged array, each element contains another array with the substrings extracted from the current line of readProduct as their elements.
allProducts's elements are assigned the contents of parsedProducts's elements by the foreach loop.
As far as I can tell, there isn't any way to cut out the middle man and just use Select() on readProducts directly. But I could be wrong.

Load data from txt file to comboBox

Hi i have this structure of txt file:
Lukas 1
Zdenek 3
Martin 2
Kate 1
And i need load this data...the name i need load to comboBox...and when i choose from ComboBox for example Lukas, i need to save Name Lukas to variable Name and number 1 to variable Number...
It is possible?
I have this code now...
using (StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(#"C:\Us...nka\example.txt"))
{
string data = "";
data = reader.ReadToEnd().Trim();
}
But i need read separately Name and separately Number...Have you any ideas? Thanks..

You can use File.ReadLines and String.Split:
var lines = File.ReadLines(#"C:\Us...nka\example.txt");
var data = lines.Select(l => l.Split());
I would use a class to store both properties:
public class Person
{
public int PersonID { get; set; }
public string PersonName { get; set; }
}
Now you can load the persons in a loop or with LINQ:
List<Person> allPersons = data
.Where(arr => arr.Length >= 2 && arr[1].Trim().All(Char.IsDigit))
.Select(arr => new Person
{
PersonName = arr[0].Trim(),
PersonID = int.Parse(arr[1].Trim())
})
.ToList();
Edit:
Yes thanks...but i cant load PersonsName to combobox
You can use a BindingSource for the ComboBox. Then set the DisplayMember and ValueMember properties accordingly:
var bindingSourcePersons = new BindingSource();
bindingSourcePersons.DataSource = allPersons;
personComboBox.DataSource = bindingSourcePersons.DataSource;
personComboBox.ValueMember = "PersonID";
personComboBox.DisplayMember = "PersonName";

First create a class like this:
public class Person {
public string Name {get;set;}
public int Number {get;set;}
}
then you can use Linq to convert the string you read like this:
var people = data
.Split(new {'\r','\n'}, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries)
.Select(d => new Person { Name = d.Split(' ')[0], Value = int.Parse(d.Split(' ')[1])})
.ToList();
Or better you could read your data line by line, like this:
var people = from l in File.ReadLines(#"C:\Us...nka\example.txt")
let parts = l.Split(' ')
select new Person {
Name = parts[0].Trim(),
Value = int.Parse(parts[1].Trim())
};

here is a pseudo:
while the reader is not EndOfStream
read current line
split the line that was just read into a string[] array, the separator being a space
first item in the array would be the name and the second item in the array would be the number.
then you add the item in the combo box. The combobox has an Items collection and an add method, which just takes a System.Object.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa983551(v=vs.71).aspx

Dictionary<int, List<string>>

I have something like this:
Dictionary<int, List<string>> fileList = new Dictionary<int, List<string>>();
and then, I fill it with some variables, for example:
fileList.Add(
counter,
new List<string> {
OFD.SafeFileName,
OFD.FileName,
VERSION, NAME , DATE ,
BOX , SERIAL_NUM, SERIES,
POINT , NOTE , VARIANT
}
);
Where counter is a variable that increment +1 each time something happens, List<string>{XXX} where XXX are string variables that holds some text.
My question is, how do I access these strings from the list, if counter == 1?

You can access the data in the dictionary and lists just like normal. Remember, access a value in the dictionary first, which will return a list. Then, access the items in the list.
For example, you can index into the dictionary, which returns a list, and then index into the list:
------ Returns a list from the dictionary
| --- Returns an item from the list
| |
v v
fileList[0][0] // First item in the first list
fileList[1][0] // First item in the second list
fileList[1][1] // Second item in the second list
// etc.

FishBasketGordo explains how you can access entries in your data structure. I will only add some thoughts here:
Dictionaries (based on hash tables) allow fast access to arbitrary keys. But your keys are given by a counter variable (counter = 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 ...). The fastest way to access such keys is to simply use the index of an array or of a list. Therefore I would just use a List<> instead of a Dictionary<,>.
Furthermore, your list seems not to list anonymous values but rather values having very specific and distinct meanings. I.e. a date is not the same as a name. In this case I would create a class that stores these values and that allows an individual access to individual values.
public class FileInformation
{
public string SafeFileName { get; set; }
public string FileName { get; set; }
public decimal Version { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
public DateTime Date { get; set; }
...
}
Now you can create a list like this:
var fileList = new List<FileInformation>();
fileList.Add(
new FileInformation {
SafeFileName = "MyDocument.txt",
FileName = "MyDocument.txt",
Version = 1.2,
...
}
}
And you can access the information like this
decimal version = fileList[5].Version;
If the keys don't start at zero, just subtract the starting value:
int firstKey = 100;
int requestedKey = 117;
decimal version = fileList[requestedKey - firstKey].Version;

Dictionary uses Indexer to access its vallues via key.
List<string> items = fileList[counter];
var str0 = items[0];
var str1 = items[1];
Then you can do anything with the list.

Dictionary<int, List<string>> fileList = new Dictionary<int, List<string>>();
fileList.Add(101, new List<string> { "fijo", "Frigy" });
fileList.Add(102, new List<string> { "lijo", "liji" });
fileList.Add(103, new List<string> { "vimal", "vilma" });
for (int Key = 101; Key < 104; Key++)
{
for (int ListIndex = 0; ListIndex < fileList[Key].Count; ListIndex++)
{
Console.WriteLine(fileList[Key][ListIndex] as string);
}
}

You can access the List through MyDic[Key][0]. While editing the list, there won't be any run time errors, however it will result in unnecessary values stored in Dictionary. So better:
assign the MyDict[Key] to new list
edit the new list and then
reassign the new list to MyDict[Key] rather than editing a
particular variable in the Dictionary with List as Values.
Code example:
List<string> lstr = new List<string(MyDict[Key]);
lstr[0] = "new Values";
lstr[1] = "new Value 2";
MyDict[Key] = lstr;