Develop Reference

C# parallel for sharing internal variables

Hi I am working on the following code:
Parallel.For(1, residRanges.Count, i =>
{
int count = 0;
List<double> colAList = new List<double>();
List<double> colBList = new List<double>();
for (int x = 0; x < residErrorData.Count; x++)
{
foreach (pricateConnection in residErrorData[x].connList)
{
if (residRanges[i].connection == nc.connection)
{
colAList.Add(residErrorData[x].residualError);
colBList.Add(nc.freq);
count = count + 1;
}
}
}
colA = new double[count];
colB = new double[count];
for (int j = 0; j < count; j++)
{
colA[j] = colAList[j];
colB[j] = colBList[j];
}
residRangeError tempresid = residRanges[i];
tempresid = fitResid(tempresid, colA, colB);
residRanges[i] = tempresid;
residRanges[i].n = count;
}
});
If I don't use the parallel class my values seem to be accurate however when i use the parallel class for some reason it mixes up the values for the colA and colB. It's mixing them between the threads. I'm fairly new to parallel processing but I've been looking around, and can't seem to find any solutions. Does anyone know why the program seems to be sharing variables between threads?
I know the code isn't ideal I've been trying different things to figure out what was going wrong. I'm not trying to necessarily optimize it at the moment so much as understand why the variables in the different loops aren't staying separate.
residRanges[] is a list of class items. The for loops using it seems to get the right values they just begin to mix up which values go where when run in Parallel.For.
Thanks for any help! I could really use it!

(Reposting as an answer for sweet, sweet karma)
Your code looks as though colA and colB are declared outside the lambda's scope, which means the variable references could refer to different array objects as different threads run simultaneously (e.g. Thread 0 would change colA while Thread 1 is inside the for j < count loop.
Move the declarations of colA and colB to inside the lambda:
...
Double[] colA = new double[count];
Double[] colB = new double[count];
for (int j = 0; j < count; j++)
...
However I see that you don't actually do anything useful with colA and colB other than using them as a value holder for your fitResid function, you can simplify this by:
Change your fitResid function signature to accept IList<Double> instead of Double[]
Change your fitResid function call to pass in colAList and colBList in respectively, which will speed up your code by eliminating the unnecessary copying and memory allocation:
...
residRanges[i] = fitResid( residRanges[i], colAList, colBList );
residRanges[i].n = count;
...

Custom Queue Class Iteration and Data Retrieval C#

So I'm working in Visual Studio 2015 with a few custom classes. One of which is called MinPriorityQueue, and it is a priority queue that, in this situation, allows me to retrieve the object of MinimumPriority in the queue via a property MinimumPriority. There is also a method called RemoveMinimumPriority, which is self-explanatory.
I am not allowed to modify this method, it was pre-made for us for this assignment, otherwise I would have already found a simple solution.
My program is meant to compare two text files, and return a value based off a certain equation which isn't important as far as this post goes. The problem I am having is within my UserInterface code. Here is my click event for the 'Analyze' button on my GUI.
private void uxAnalyze_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
Dictionary<string, StoreWord> dictionary = new Dictionary<string, StoreWord>();
const int _numFiles = 2;
MinPriorityQueue<float, StoreInfo> minQueue = new MinPriorityQueue<float, StoreInfo>();
int numWords1 = 0;
int numWords2 = 0;
//Process Both Input Files
using (StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(uxTextBox1.Text))
{
for (int i = 0; i < _numFiles; i++)
{
if (i == 0)
{
dictionary = ReadFile(dictionary, uxTextBox1.Text, i, out numWords1);
}
if (i == 1)
{
dictionary = ReadFile(dictionary, uxTextBox2.Text, i, out numWords2);
}
}
}
int[] numWords = new int[2];
numWords[0] = numWords1;
numWords[1] = numWords2;
//Get 50 Words with Highest Combined Frequencies
foreach(var entry in dictionary.Values)
{
StoreInfo freq = new StoreInfo(entry, numWords);
minQueue.Add(freq, Convert.ToSingle(entry[0] + entry[1]));
if(minQueue.Count > 50)
{
minQueue.RemoveMinimumPriority();
}
}
//Compute and Display the Difference Measure
float diffMeasure = 0;
float temp = 0;
foreach( x in minQueue)
for (int i = 0; i < minQueue.Count; i++)
{
temp += minQueue.????; //This is where my problem stems
}
diffMeasure = (float)(100 * Math.Sqrt(temp));
}
A few lines from the end you will see a comment showing where my problem is located. The MinPriorityQueue (minQueue) has two parameters, a Priority, and a Value, where the Priority is a Float, and the Value is another class called StoreInfo. This class has an Indexer, which will return information from a different file depending on what the index is. In this case, there are only two files. For example: StoreInfo[i] returns the frequency of a word in the ith text file.
Ideally, my code would look like this:
for (int i = 0; i < minQueue.Count; i++)
{
temp += (minQueue.minimumValue[0] - minQueue.minimumValue[1])*(minQueue.minimumValue[0] - minQueue.minimumValue[1]);
}
diffMeasure = (float)(100 * Math.Sqrt(temp));
Problem is, that would require a minimumValue property, which I don't have access to. All I have is minimumPriority.
As far as I can see, there is no other way for me to get the Values that I need in order to get the frequencies that I need to get from the indexer and put into the equation.
Help is much appreciated.

Alright guys, I've been thinking at this for far too long, and it doesn't seem like anyone else sees another solution either.
At this point, I'm just going to go with the logical solution and add another property into the MinPriorityQueue class, even though it is against my professor's wishes.
Thank you all anyway.

Binary search slower, what am I doing wrong?

EDIT: so it looks like this is normal behavior, so can anyone just recommend a faster way to do these numerous intersections?
so my problem is this. I have 8000 lists (strings in each list). For each list (ranging from size 50 to 400), I'm comparing it to every other list and performing a calculation based on the intersection number. So I'll do
list1(intersect)list1= number
list1(intersect)list2= number
list1(intersect)list888= number
And I do this for every list. Previously, I had HashList and my code was essentially this: (well, I was actually searching through properties of an object, so I
had to modify the code a bit, but it's basically this:
I have my two versions below, but if anyone knows anything faster, please let me know!
Loop through AllLists, getting each list, starting with list1, and then do this:
foreach (List list in AllLists)
{
if (list1_length < list_length) //just a check to so I'm looping through the
//smaller list
{
foreach (string word in list1)
{
if (block.generator_list.Contains(word))
{
//simple integer count
}
}
}
// a little more code, but the same, but looping through the other list if it's smaller/bigger
Then I make the lists into regular lists, and applied Sort(), which changed my code to
foreach (List list in AllLists)
{
if (list1_length < list_length) //just a check to so I'm looping through the
//smaller list
{
for (int i = 0; i < list1_length; i++)
{
var test = list.BinarySearch(list1[i]);
if (test > -1)
{
//simple integer count
}
}
}
The first version takes about 6 seconds, the other one takes more than 20 (I just stop there cuz otherwise it would take more than a minute!!!) (and this is for a smallish subset of the data)
I'm sure there's a drastic mistake somewhere, but I can't find it.

Well I have tried three distinct methods for achieving this (assuming I understood the problem correctly). Please note I have used HashSet<int> in order to more easily generate random input.
setting up:
List<HashSet<int>> allSets = new List<HashSet<int>>();
Random rand = new Random();
for(int i = 0; i < 8000; ++i) {
HashSet<int> ints = new HashSet<int>();
for(int j = 0; j < rand.Next(50, 400); ++j) {
ints.Add(rand.Next(0, 1000));
}
allSets.Add(ints);
}
the three methods I checked (code is what runs in the inner loop):
the loop:
note that you are getting duplicated results in your code (intersecting set A with set B and later intersecting set B with set A).
It won't affect your performance thanks to the list length check you are doing. But iterating this way is clearer.
for(int i = 0; i < allSets.Count; ++i) {
for(int j = i + 1; j < allSets.Count; ++j) {
}
}
first method:
used IEnumerable.Intersect() to get the intersection with the other list and checked IEnumerable.Count() to get the size of the intersection.
var intersect = allSets[i].Intersect(allSets[j]);
count = intersect.Count();
this was the slowest one averaging 177s
second method:
cloned the smaller set of the two sets I was intersecting, then used ISet.IntersectWith() and checked the resulting sets Count.
HashSet<int> intersect;
HashSet<int> intersectWith;
if(allSets[i].Count < allSets[j].Count) {
intersect = new HashSet<int>(allSets[i]);
intersectWith = allSets[j];
} else {
intersect = new HashSet<int>(allSets[j]);
intersectWith = allSets[i];
}
intersect.IntersectWith(intersectWith);
count = intersect.Count;
}
}
this one was slightly faster, averaging 154s
third method:
did something very similar to what you did iterated over the shorter set and checked ISet.Contains on the longer set.
for(int i = 0; i < allSets.Count; ++i) {
for(int j = i + 1; j < allSets.Count; ++j) {
count = 0;
if(allSets[i].Count < allSets[j].Count) {
loopingSet = allSets[i];
containsSet = allSets[j];
} else {
loopingSet = allSets[j];
containsSet = allSets[i];
}
foreach(int k in loopingSet) {
if(containsSet.Contains(k)) {
++count;
}
}
}
}
this method was by far the fastest (as expected), averaging 66s
conclusion
the method you're using is the fastest of these three. I certainly can't think of a faster single threaded way to do this. Perhaps there is a better concurrent solution.

I've found that one of the most important considerations in iterating/searching any kind of collection is to choose the collection type very carefully. To iterate through a normal collection for your purposes will not be the most optimal. Try using something like:
System.Collections.Generic.HashSet<T>
Using the Contains() method while iterating over the shorter list of two (as you mentioned you're already doing) should give close to O(1) performance, the same as key lookups in the generic Dictionary type.

How do I set parts of an array to a random value in C#?

I'm new to programming so please bear with me!
I am trying to set the parts of an array to random values, but whenever I run the program it sets all parts of the array to the same value. I want them all to be different.
Here is my code:
int[] hello_array = new int[10];
Console.WriteLine("Here");
Random rndm = new Random();
for (int j = 0; j < hello_array.Length; j++)
{
hello_array[j] = rndm.Next(99);
}
Console.WriteLine("Now Here");
for (int i = 0; i < hello_array.Length; i++)
{
Console.WriteLine("hahahaha look at this " + hello_array[0]);
I'm probably completely missing it, but I can't tell what's wrong with my code! Can someone please tell me how I would make it so that all ten parts of the array generate different random numbers?

Change this:
Console.WriteLine("hahahaha look at this " + hello_array[0]);
to this:
Console.WriteLine("hahahaha look at this " + hello_array[i]);
You were printing the same element in the array on every loop.

With the same number of lines, you could use some of the newer C# features to accomplish the same result (but without all the messy details).
You'd define a generic method that takes two parameters: a lambda expression (for instance, () => random.Next(99)) and the number of elements to generate. Inside the method, you'd use the yield keyword to return a new element generated by the factory.
Random random = new Random();
foreach (var element in Generate(() => random.Next(99), 10))
{
Console.WriteLine(element);
}
public static IEnumerable<T> Generate<T>(Func<T> factory, int elements)
{
for (int generated = 0; generated < elements; generated++)
{
yield return factory();
}
}

Which collection type to use?

I have a scenario where I have a list of classes, and I want to mix up the order. For example:
private List<Question> myQuestions = new List<Question>();
So, given that this is now populated with a set of data, I want to mix up the order. My first thought was to create a collection of integers numbered from 1 to myQuestions.Count, assign one at random to each question and then loop through them in order; however, I can’t seem to find a suitable collection type to use for this. An example of what I mean would be something like this:
for (int i = 0; i <= myQuestions.Count -1; i++)
tempCollection[i] = myQuestions[rnd.Next(myQuestions.Count-1)];
But I’m not sure what tempCollection should be – it just needs to be a single value that I can remove as I use it. Does anyone have any suggestions as to which type to use, or of a better way to do this?

I suggest you copy the results into a new List<Question> and then shuffle that list.
However, I would use a Fisher-Yates shuffle rather than the one you've given here. There are plenty of C# examples of that on this site.
For example, you might do:
// Don't create a new instance of Random each time. That's a detail
// for another question though.
Random rng = GetAppropriateRandomInstanceForThread();
List<Question> shuffled = new List<Question>(myQuestions);
for (int i = shuffled.Count - 1; i > 0; i--)
{
// Swap element "i" with a random earlier element it (or itself)
int swapIndex = rng.Next(i + 1);
Question tmp = shuffled[i];
shuffled[i] = shuffled[swapIndex];
shuffled[swapIndex] = tmp;
}

You could use Linq and order by a random value:
List<string> items = new List<string>();
items.Add("Foo");
items.Add("Bar");
items.Add("Baz");
foreach (string item in items.OrderBy(c => Guid.NewGuid()))
{
Console.WriteLine(item);
}

temp Collection should be same type as myQuestions.
I would also suggest a change in your code:
for (int i = 0; i <= myQuestions.Count -1; i++)
to
for (int i = 0; i < myQuestions.Count; i++)
Does the same thing, but this is how most programers do it so it will make your code simpler to read.