I had an interviewer ask me to write a program in c# to figure out the max number of 4 members families that can sit consecutively in a venue, taking into account that the 4 members must be consecutively seated in one single row, with the following context:
N represents the number of rows availabe.
The Columns are labeled from the letter "A" to "K", purposely ommiting the letter "i" (in other words, {A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H,J,K})
M represents a list of reserved seats
Quick example:
N = 2
M = {"1A","2F","1C"}
Solution = 3
In the representation you can see that, with the reservations and the size given, only three families of 4 can be seated in a consecutive order.
How would you solve this? is it possible to not use for loops? (Linq solutions)
I got mixed up in the for loops when trying to deal with the reservations aray: My idea was to obtain all the reservations that a row has, but then I don't really know how to deal with the letters (Converting directly from letter to number is a no go because the missing "I") and you kinda need the letters to position the reserved sits anyway.
Any approach or insight on how to go about this problem would be nice.
Thanks in advance!
Here is another implementation.
I also tried to explain why certain things have been done.
Good luck.
private static int GetNumberOfAvailablePlacesForAFamilyOfFour(int numberOfRows, string[] reservedSeats)
{
// By just declaring the column names as a string of the characters
// we can query the column index by colulmnNames.IndexOf(char)
string columnNames = "ABCDEFGHJK";
// Here we transform the reserved seats to a matrix
// 1A 2F 1C becomes
// reservedSeatMatrix[0] = [0, 2] -> meaning row 1 and columns A and C, indexes 0 and 2
// reservedSeatMatrix[1] = [5] -> meaning row 2 and column F, index 5
List<List<int>> reservedSeatMatrix = new List<List<int>>();
for (int row = 0; row < numberOfRows; row++)
{
reservedSeatMatrix.Add(new List<int>());
}
foreach (string reservedSeat in reservedSeats)
{
int seatRow = Convert.ToInt32(reservedSeat.Substring(0, reservedSeat.Length - 1));
int seatColumn = columnNames.IndexOf(reservedSeat[reservedSeat.Length - 1]);
reservedSeatMatrix[seatRow - 1].Add(seatColumn);
}
// Then comes the evaluation.
// Which is simple enough to read.
int numberOfAvailablePlacesForAFamilyOfFour = 0;
for (int row = 0; row < numberOfRows; row++)
{
// Reset the number of consecutive seats at the beginning of a new row
int numberOfConsecutiveEmptySeats = 0;
for (int column = 0; column < columnNames.Length; column++)
{
if (reservedSeatMatrix[row].Contains(column))
{
// reset when a reserved seat is reached
numberOfConsecutiveEmptySeats = 0;
continue;
}
numberOfConsecutiveEmptySeats++;
if(numberOfConsecutiveEmptySeats == 4)
{
numberOfAvailablePlacesForAFamilyOfFour++;
numberOfConsecutiveEmptySeats = 0;
}
}
}
return numberOfAvailablePlacesForAFamilyOfFour;
}
static void Main(string[] args)
{
int familyPlans = GetNumberOfAvailablePlacesForAFamilyOfFour(2, new string[] { "1A", "2F", "1C" });
}
Good luck on your interview
As always, you will be asked how could you improve that? So you'd consider complexity stuff like O(N), O(wtf).
Underlying implementation would always need for or foreach. Just importantly, never do unnecessary in a loop. For example, if there's only 3 seats left in a row, you don't need to keep hunting on that row because it is not possible to find any.
This might help a bit:
var n = 2;
var m = new string[] { "1A", "2F", "1C" };
// We use 2 dimension bool array here. If it is memory constraint, we can use BitArray.
var seats = new bool[n, 10];
// If you just need the count, you don't need a list. This is for returning more information.
var results = new List<object>();
// Set reservations.
foreach (var r in m)
{
var row = r[0] - '1';
// If it's after 'H', then calculate index based on 'J'.
// 8 is index of J.
var col = r[1] > 'H' ? (8 + r[1] - 'J') : r[1] - 'A';
seats[row, col] = true;
}
// Now you should all reserved seats marked as true.
// This is O(N*M) where N is number of rows, M is number of columns.
for (int row = 0; row < n; row++)
{
int start = -1;
int length = 0;
for (int col = 0; col < 10; col++)
{
if (start < 0)
{
if (!seats[row, col])
{
// If there's no consecutive seats has started, and current seat is available, let's start!
start = col;
length = 1;
}
}
else
{
// If have started, check if we could have 4 seats.
if (!seats[row, col])
{
length++;
if (length == 4)
{
results.Add(new { row, start });
start = -1;
length = 0;
}
}
else
{
// // We won't be able to reach 4 seats, so reset
start = -1;
length = 0;
}
}
if (start < 0 && col > 6)
{
// We are on column H now (only have 3 seats left), and we do not have a consecutive sequence started yet,
// we won't be able to make it, so break and continue next row.
break;
}
}
}
var solution = results.Count;
LINQ, for and foreach are similar things. It is possible you could wrap the above into a custom iterator like:
class ConsecutiveEnumerator : IEnumerable
{
public IEnumerator GetEnumerator()
{
}
}
Then you could start using LINQ.
If you represent your matrix in simple for developers format, it will be easier. You can accomplish it either by dictionary or perform not so complex mapping by hand. In any case this will calculate count of free consecutive seats:
public static void Main(string[] args)
{
var count = 0;//total count
var N = 2; //rows
var M = 10; //columns
var familySize = 4;
var matrix = new []{Tuple.Create(0,0),Tuple.Create(1,5), Tuple.Create(0,2)}.OrderBy(x=> x.Item1).ThenBy(x=> x.Item2).GroupBy(x=> x.Item1, x=> x.Item2);
foreach(var row in matrix)
{
var prevColumn = -1;
var currColumn = 0;
var free = 0;
var div = 0;
//Instead of enumerating entire matrix, we just calculate intervals in between reserved seats.
//Then we divide them by family size to know how many families can be contained within
foreach(var column in row)
{
currColumn = column;
free = (currColumn - prevColumn - 1)/familySize;
count += free;
prevColumn = currColumn;
}
currColumn = M;
free = (currColumn - prevColumn - 1)/familySize;
count += free;
}
Console.WriteLine("Result: {0}", count);
}
Related
I have an employees list in my application. Every employee has name and surname, so I have a list of elements like:
["Jim Carry", "Uma Turman", "Bill Gates", "John Skeet"]
I want my customers to have a feature to search employees by names with a fuzzy-searching algorithm. For example, if user enters "Yuma Turmon", the closest element - "Uma Turman" will return. I use a Levenshtein distance algorithm, I found here.
static class LevenshteinDistance
{
/// <summary>
/// Compute the distance between two strings.
/// </summary>
public static int Compute(string s, string t)
{
int n = s.Length;
int m = t.Length;
int[,] d = new int[n + 1, m + 1];
// Step 1
if (n == 0)
{
return m;
}
if (m == 0)
{
return n;
}
// Step 2
for (int i = 0; i <= n; d[i, 0] = i++)
{
}
for (int j = 0; j <= m; d[0, j] = j++)
{
}
// Step 3
for (int i = 1; i <= n; i++)
{
//Step 4
for (int j = 1; j <= m; j++)
{
// Step 5
int cost = (t[j - 1] == s[i - 1]) ? 0 : 1;
// Step 6
d[i, j] = Math.Min(
Math.Min(d[i - 1, j] + 1, d[i, j - 1] + 1),
d[i - 1, j - 1] + cost);
}
}
// Step 7
return d[n, m];
}
}
I iterate user's input (full name) over the list of employee names and compare distance. If it is below 3, for example, I return found employee.
Now I want allow users to search by reversed names - for example, if user inputs "Turmon Uma" it will return "Uma Turman", as actually real distance is 1, because First name and Last name is the same as Last name and First name. My algorithm now counts it as different strings, far away. How can I modify it so that names are found regardless of order?
You can create a reversed version of employee names with LINQ. For example, if you have a list of employees like
x = ["Jim Carry", "Uma Turman", "Bill Gates", "John Skeet"]
you can write the following code:
var reversedNames = x.Select(p=> $"{p.Split(' ')[1] p.Split(' ')[0]}");
It will return the reversed version, like:
xReversed = ["Carry Jim", "Turman Uma", "Gates Bill", "Skeet John"]
Then repeat you algorithm with this data too.
A few thoughts, as this is a potentially complicated problem to get right:
Split each employee name into a list of strings. Personally, I'd probably discard anything with 2 or fewer letters, unless that's all the name is composed of. This should help with surnames like "De La Cruz" which might get searched as "dela cruz". Store the list of names for each employee in a dictionary that points back to that employee.
Split the search terms in the same way you split the names in the list. For each search term find the names with the lowest Levenshtein distance, then for each one, starting at the lowest, repeat the search with the rest of the search terms against the other names for that employee. Repeat this step with each word in the query. For example, if the query is John Smith, find the best single word name matches for John, then match remaining names for those "best match" employees on Smith, and get a sum of the distances. Then find the best matches for Smith and match remaining names on John, and sum the distances. The best match is the one with the lowest total distance. You can provide a list of best matches by returning the top 10, say, sorted by total distance. And it won't matter which way around the names in the database or the search terms are. In fact they could be completely out of order and it wouldn't matter.
Consider how to handle hyphenated names. I'd probably split them as if they were not hyphenated.
Consider upper/lower case characters, if you haven't already. You should store lookups in one case and convert the search terms to the same case before comparison.
Be careful of accented letters, many people have them in their names, such as รก. Your algorithm won't work correctly with them. Be even more careful if you expect to ever have non-alpha double byte characters, eg. Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, etc.
Two more benefits of splitting the names of each employee:
"Unused" names won't count against the total, so if I only search using the last name, it won't count against me in finding the shortest distance.
Along the same lines, you could apply some extra rules to help with finding non-standard names. For example, hyphenated names could be stored both as hyphenated (eg. Wells-Harvey), compound (WellsHarvey) and individual names (Wells and Harvey separate), all against the same employee. A low-distance match on any one name is a low-distance match on the employee, again extra names don't count against the total.
Here's some basic code that seems to work, however it only really takes into account points 1, 2 and 4:
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
namespace EmployeeSearch
{
static class Program
{
static List<string> EmployeesList = new List<string>() { "Jim Carrey", "Uma Thurman", "Bill Gates", "Jon Skeet" };
static Dictionary<int, List<string>> employeesById = new Dictionary<int, List<string>>();
static Dictionary<string, List<int>> employeeIdsByName = new Dictionary<string, List<int>>();
static void Main()
{
Init();
var results = FindEmployeeByNameFuzzy("Umaa Thurrmin");
// Returns:
// (1) Uma Thurman Distance: 3
// (0) Jim Carrey Distance: 10
// (3) Jon Skeet Distance: 11
// (2) Bill Gates Distance: 12
Console.WriteLine(string.Join("\r\n", results.Select(r => $"({r.Id}) {r.Name} Distance: {r.Distance}")));
var results = FindEmployeeByNameFuzzy("Tormin Oma");
// Returns:
// (1) Uma Thurman Distance: 4
// (3) Jon Skeet Distance: 7
// (0) Jim Carrey Distance: 8
// (2) Bill Gates Distance: 9
Console.WriteLine(string.Join("\r\n", results.Select(r => $"({r.Id}) {r.Name} Distance: {r.Distance}")));
Console.Read();
}
private static void Init() // prepare our lists
{
for (int i = 0; i < EmployeesList.Count; i++)
{
// Preparing the list of names for each employee - add special cases such as hyphenation here as well
var names = EmployeesList[i].ToLower().Split(new char[] { ' ' }).ToList();
employeesById.Add(i, names);
// This is not used here, but could come in handy if you want a unique index of names pointing to employee ids for optimisation:
foreach (var name in names)
{
if (employeeIdsByName.ContainsKey(name))
{
employeeIdsByName[name].Add(i);
}
else
{
employeeIdsByName.Add(name, new List<int>() { i });
}
}
}
}
private static List<SearchResult> FindEmployeeByNameFuzzy(string query)
{
var results = new List<SearchResult>();
// Notice we're splitting the search terms the same way as we split the employee names above (could be refactored out into a helper method)
var searchterms = query.ToLower().Split(new char[] { ' ' });
// Comparison with each employee
for (int i = 0; i < employeesById.Count; i++)
{
var r = new SearchResult() { Id = i, Name = EmployeesList[i] };
var employeenames = employeesById[i];
foreach (var searchterm in searchterms)
{
int min = searchterm.Length;
// for each search term get the min distance for all names for this employee
foreach (var name in employeenames)
{
var distance = LevenshteinDistance.Compute(searchterm, name);
min = Math.Min(min, distance);
}
// Sum the minimums for all search terms
r.Distance += min;
}
results.Add(r);
}
// Order by lowest distance first
return results.OrderBy(e => e.Distance).ToList();
}
}
public class SearchResult
{
public int Distance { get; set; }
public int Id { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
}
public static class LevenshteinDistance
{
/// <summary>
/// Compute the distance between two strings.
/// </summary>
public static int Compute(string s, string t)
{
int n = s.Length;
int m = t.Length;
int[,] d = new int[n + 1, m + 1];
// Step 1
if (n == 0)
{
return m;
}
if (m == 0)
{
return n;
}
// Step 2
for (int i = 0; i <= n; d[i, 0] = i++)
{
}
for (int j = 0; j <= m; d[0, j] = j++)
{
}
// Step 3
for (int i = 1; i <= n; i++)
{
//Step 4
for (int j = 1; j <= m; j++)
{
// Step 5
int cost = (t[j - 1] == s[i - 1]) ? 0 : 1;
// Step 6
d[i, j] = Math.Min(
Math.Min(d[i - 1, j] + 1, d[i, j - 1] + 1),
d[i - 1, j - 1] + cost);
}
}
// Step 7
return d[n, m];
}
}
}
Simply call Init() when you start, then call
var results = FindEmployeeByNameFuzzy(userquery);
to return an ordered list of the best matches.
Disclaimers: This code is not optimal and has only been briefly tested, doesn't check for nulls, could explode and kill a kitten, etc, etc. If you have a large number of employees then this could be very slow. There are several improvements that could be made, for example when looping over the Levenshtein algorithm you could drop out if the distance gets above the current minimum distance.
What I want to do is find groups of consecutive numbers(Excel row numbers) in a List and for each chunk of consecutive numbers, delete the rows en masse, rather than one at at time since at times I will be iterating through up to 9K rows and growing. The issue that I am running into is the way I have tweaked the foreach loop, I would need to reuse the last non-consecutive variable that was checked.
Ex: The list is rows {23,22,21,17,16,15} i would need to pull 23-21, then 17-15, out and delete the chunks (that's why they are in descending order, work from the bottom up). The loop enters the != if statement on 17, and works, but then 17 is already used and 16 is the next iteration of the loop, so 17 is never captured as the start of the next consecutively numbered grouping.
My question: Is there a way to hold on to the 17, and any other start of a new consecutive group, in this manner or am I barking up the wrong tree?
Code:
public void FindMatchingBlocks(string stateId, string[] rangeNames)
{
Excel.Worksheet wksht = wkbk.Sheets["Sheet1"];
Excel.Range rng = wksht.Range["$A$15:$A$23"];
string val;
string val2;
List<int>rowNums = new List<int>();
string rngStart = rangeNames[0].ToString(); //gives me "$A$15"
string rngEnd = rangeNames[1].ToString();//gives me $A$23$
string[] tempArray = rngEnd.Split('$');
string end = tempArray[2].ToString();
List<int> rowsToDelete = new List<int>();
foreach (Excel.Range range in rng)
{
if (range.Row < Convert.ToInt32(end)+1)
{
//pulls out the first two characters of the cell value to
// match it to the stateID, if they match they are not to
// be added to the list and not be deleted.
val = range.Value.ToString();
val2 = val.Substring(0, 2);
if (Convert.ToInt32(val2) != Convert.ToInt32(stateId))
{
rowsToDelete.Add(range.Row); // ends up being
// {23,22,21,17,16,15}
}
}
}
int count = 0;
int firstItem = 0;
rowsToDelete.Reverse(); //delete from the bottom up
foreach (int x in rowsToDelete)
{
// First value in the ordered list: start of a sequence
if (count == 0)
{
firstItem = x;
count = 1;
}
// Skip duplicate values
else if (x == firstItem - count)
{
count++;
}
// New value contributes to sequence
else if (x != firstItem - count)
{
int endRow = firstItem;
int startRow = firstItem - count + 1;
Excel.Range delRange = wksht.Rows[startRow.ToString() + ":" + endRow.ToString()];
delRange.Delete(Excel.XlDeleteShiftDirection.xlShiftUp);
count = 0;
firstItem = ????; //can I do something to keep the first
//non-consecutive number each time it is
// encountered. In this list it skips 17
}
}
}
Hopefully this is clear, took me a bit to figure out how to concisely explain what I need. Thanks.
What do we have? A sequence of integers.
What do we want? A sequence of integer ranges.
Start by representing that in the type system. We have IEnumerable<int> for a sequence of integers. Let's make a little type: (using C# 6 notation here)
struct MyRange
{
public int High { get; }
public int Low { get; }
public MyRange(int high, int low) : this()
{
High = high;
Low = low;
}
}
Easy. What is the signature of our method? We want integers in and ranges out, so:
static class MyExtensions
{
public static IEnumerable<MyRange> DescendingChunks(this IEnumerable<int> items)
Seems reasonable. Now what does this thing do? There are three cases. Either we've got no range at all because we're the first, or we're extending the current range, or we've got a new range. So one case for each:
{
bool first = true;
int high = 0;
int low = 0;
foreach(int item in items)
{
if (first)
{
high = item;
low = item;
first = false;
}
else if (item == low - 1)
{
low = item;
}
else
{
yield return new MyRange(high, low);
high = item;
low = item;
}
}
And we never yielded the last thing in the sequence...
yield return new MyRange(high, low);
}
Make sense? Now instead of your loop
foreach (int x in rowsToDelete)
we have
foreach(MyRange range in rowsToDelete.DescendingChunks())
and now you know what range to modify.
Super bonus question: there is another case I did not enumerate, and as a result there is a small bug in this method. What is it?
It took some time but I was able to come up with a compact way to take a list of numbers find the consecutive numbers and group them into a List. Hopefully if someone finds this and its useful:
private void groupConsecutiveNumbers()
{
/* this could easily be changed to look for ascending numbered groups by switching some of the "-1" to "+1"
* and swapping the firstNum/endNum variables. */
int[] numArray = new int[]{ 50, 23, 22, 21, 15, 16, 14, 9, 5, 4, 3, 1};
int firstNum = 0;
int endNum = 0;
string grouping;
for (int i = 0; i < numArray.Length; i++)
{
//If there is only 1 member of the list, that will be the first and last member of the group
if (numArray.Length == 1)
{
firstNum = numArray[0];
endNum = numArray[0];
grouping = firstNum.ToString() + "-" + endNum.ToString();
lstGroups.Items.Add(grouping);
}
//if the number is the first one in the list then it automatically is the first one in the first list
else if (i == 0)
{
firstNum = numArray[0];
}
/* if its not the first one in the list and it is equal to the previous list item minus one
* (contiguously descending), then enter this loop */
else if (numArray[i] == (numArray[i-1] - 1))
{
//if this is the last member of the list, it automatically is the last item in the range
if ((i + 1) == numArray.Length)
{
endNum = numArray[i];
grouping = firstNum.ToString() + "-" + endNum.ToString();
lstGroups.Items.Add(grouping);
}
//if this isn't the last member of the list, exit the loop and continue with the next item.
else
{
continue;
}
}
/* if the item if its not the first one in the list and does NOT equal the last item minus one
* (not contiguously descending) then the previous item was the last contiguously descending
* item and the current item is the first item in the next group */
else if (numArray[i] != (numArray[i-1]-1))
{
endNum = numArray[i - 1];
grouping = firstNum.ToString() + "-" + endNum.ToString();
lstGroups.Items.Add(grouping);
firstNum = numArray[i];
endNum = 0;
}
/* After all that testing,if the item is the last item in the list AND the first number in the group
* is also the last item in the list then the current item in the list is both the first and last member
* in the current group. */
if ((i + 1) == numArray.Length && firstNum == numArray[i])
{
endNum = numArray[i];
grouping = firstNum.ToString() + "-" + endNum.ToString();
lstGroups.Items.Add(grouping);
}
}
}
Best way I can explain it is using an example:
You are visiting a shop with $2000, your goal is to have $0 at the end of your trip.
You do not know how many items are going to be available, nor how much they cost.
Say that there are currently 3 items costing $1000, $750, $500.
(The point is to calculate all possible solutions, not the most efficient one.)
You can spend $2000, this means:
You can buy the $1000 item 0, 1 or 2 times.
You can buy the $750 item 0, 1 or 2 times.
You can buy the $500 item 0, 1, 2, 3 or 4 times.
At the end I need to be able to have all solutions, in this case it will be
2*$1000
1*$1000 and 2*$500
2*$750 and 1*$500
4*$500
Side note: you can't have a duplicate solution (like this)
1*$1000 and 2*$500
2*$500 and 1*$1000
This is what I tried:
You first call this function using
goalmoney = convert.ToInt32(goalMoneyTextBox.Text);
totalmoney = Convert.ToInt32(totalMoneyTextBox.Text);
int[] list = new int[usingListBox.Items.Count];
Calculate(0, currentmoney, list);
The function:
public void Calculate(int level, int money, int[] list)
{
string item = usingListBox.Items[level].ToString();
int cost = ItemDict[item];
for (int i = 0; i <= (totalmoney / cost); i++)
{
int[] templist = list;
int tempmoney = money - (cost * i);
templist[level] = i;
if (tempmoney == goalmoney)
{
resultsFound++;
}
if (level < usingListBox.Items.Count - 1 && tempmoney != goalmoney) Calculate(level + 1, tempmoney, templist);
}
}
Your problem can be reduced to a well known mathematical problem labeled Frobenius equation which is closely related to the well known Coin problem. Suppose you have N items, where i-th item costs c[i] and you need to spent exactly S$. So you need to find all non negative integer solutions (or decide whether there are no solutions at all) of equation
c[1]*n[1] + c[2]*n[2] + ... + c[N]*n[N] = S
where all n[i] are unknown variables and each n[i] is the number of bought items of i-th type.
This equation can be solved in a various ways. The following function allSolutions (I suppose it can be additionally simplified) finds all solutions of a given equation:
public static List<int[]> allSolutions(int[] system, int total) {
ArrayList<int[]> all = new ArrayList<>();
int[] solution = new int[system.length];//initialized by zeros
int pointer = system.length - 1, temp;
out:
while (true) {
do { //the following loop can be optimized by calculation of remainder
++solution[pointer];
} while ((temp = total(system, solution)) < total);
if (temp == total && pointer != 0)
all.add(solution.clone());
do {
if (pointer == 0) {
if (temp == total) //not lose the last solution!
all.add(solution.clone());
break out;
}
for (int i = pointer; i < system.length; ++i)
solution[i] = 0;
++solution[--pointer];
} while ((temp = total(system, solution)) > total);
pointer = system.length - 1;
if (temp == total)
all.add(solution.clone());
}
return all;
}
public static int total(int[] system, int[] solution) {
int total = 0;
for (int i = 0; i < system.length; ++i)
total += system[i] * solution[i];
return total;
}
In the above code system is array of coefficients c[i] and total is S. There is an obvious restriction: system should have no any zero elements (this lead to infinite number of solutions). A slight modification of the above code avoids this restriction.
Assuming you have class Product which exposes a property called Price, this is a way to do it:
public List<List<Product>> GetAffordableCombinations(double availableMoney, List<Product> availableProducts)
{
List<Product> sortedProducts = availableProducts.OrderByDescending(p => p.Price).ToList();
//we have to cycle through the list multiple times while keeping track of the current
//position in each subsequent cycle. we're using a list of integers to save these positions
List<int> layerPointer = new List<int>();
layerPointer.Add(0);
int currentLayer = 0;
List<List<Product>> affordableCombinations = new List<List<Product>>();
List<Product> tempList = new List<Product>();
//when we went through all product on the top layer, we're done
while (layerPointer[0] < sortedProducts.Count)
{
//take the product in the current position on the current layer
var currentProduct = sortedProducts[layerPointer[currentLayer]];
var currentSum = tempList.Sum(p => p.Price);
if ((currentSum + currentProduct.Price) <= availableMoney)
{
//if the sum doesn't exeed our maximum we add that prod to a temp list
tempList.Add(currentProduct);
//then we advance to the next layer
currentLayer++;
//if it doesn't exist, we create it and set the 'start product' on that layer
//to the current product of the current layer
if (currentLayer >= layerPointer.Count)
layerPointer.Add(layerPointer[currentLayer - 1]);
}
else
{
//if the sum would exeed our maximum we move to the next prod on the current layer
layerPointer[currentLayer]++;
if (layerPointer[currentLayer] >= sortedProducts.Count)
{
//if we've reached the end of the list on the current layer,
//there are no more cheaper products to add, and this cycle is complete
//so we add the list we have so far to the possible combinations
affordableCombinations.Add(tempList);
tempList = new List<Product>();
//move to the next product on the top layer
layerPointer[0]++;
currentLayer = 0;
//set the current products on each subsequent layer to the current of the top layer
for (int i = 1; i < layerPointer.Count; i++)
{
layerPointer[i] = layerPointer[0];
}
}
}
}
return affordableCombinations;
}
I have a comma delimited text file that contains 20 digits separated by commas. These numbers represent earned points and possible points for ten different assignments. We're to use these to calculate a final score for the course.
Normally, I'd iterate through the numbers, creating two sums, divide and be done with it. However, our assignment dictates that we load the list of numbers into two arrays.
so this:
10,10,20,20,30,35,40,50,45,50,45,50,50,50,20,20,45,90,85,85
becomes this:
int[10] earned = {10,20,30,40,45,50,20,45,85};
int[10] possible = {10,20,35,50,50,50,20,90,85};
Right now, I'm using
for (x=0;x<10;x++)
{
earned[x] = scores[x*2]
poss [x] = scores[(x*2)+1]
}
which gives me the results I want, but seems excessively clunky.
Is there a better way?
The following should split each alternating item the list into the other two lists.
int[20] scores = {10,10,20,20,30,35,40,50,45,50,45,50,50,50,20,20,45,90,85,85};
int[10] earned;
int[10] possible;
int a = 0;
for(int x=0; x<10; x++)
{
earned[x] = scores[a++];
possible[x] = scores[a++];
}
You can use LINQ here:
var arrays = csv.Split(',')
.Select((v, index) => new {Value = int.Parse(v), Index = index})
.GroupBy(g => g.Index % 2,
g => g.Value,
(key, values) => values.ToArray())
.ToList();
and then
var earned = arrays[0];
var possible = arrays[1];
Get rid of the "magic" multiplications and illegible array index computations.
var earned = new List<int>();
var possible = new List<int>();
for (x=0; x<scores.Length; x += 2)
{
earned.Add(scores[x + 0]);
possible.Add(scores[x + 1]);
}
This has very little that would need a text comment. This is the gold standard for self-documenting code.
I initially thought the question was a C question because of all the incomprehensible indexing. It looked like pointer magic. It was too clever.
In my codebases I usually have an AsChunked extension available that splits a list into chunks of the given size.
var earned = new List<int>();
var possible = new List<int>();
foreach (var pair in scores.AsChunked(2)) {
earned.Add(pair[0]);
possible.Add(pair[1]);
}
Now the meaning of the code is apparent. The magic is gone.
Even shorter:
var pairs = scores.AsChunked(2);
var earned = pairs.Select(x => x[0]).ToArray();
var possible = pairs.Select(x => x[1]).ToArray();
I suppose you could do it like this:
int[] earned = new int[10];
int[] possible = new int[10];
int resultIndex = 0;
for (int i = 0; i < scores.Count; i = i + 2)
{
earned[resultIndex] = scores[i];
possible[resultIndex] = scores[i + 1];
resultIndex++;
}
You would have to be sure that an equal number of values are stored in scores.
I would leave your code as is. You are technically expressing very directly what your intent is, every 2nd element goes into each array.
The only way to improve that solution is to comment why you are multiplying. But I would expect someone to quickly recognize the trick, or easily reproduce what it is doing. Here is an excessive example of how to comment it. I wouldn't recommend using this directly.
for (x=0;x<10;x++)
{
//scores contains the elements inline one after the other
earned[x] = scores[x*2] //Get the even elements into earned
poss [x] = scores[(x*2)+1] //And the odd into poss
}
However if you really don't like the multiplication, you can track the scores index separately.
int i = 0;
for (int x = 0; x < 10; x++)
{
earned[x] = scores[i++];
poss [x] = scores[i++];
}
But I would probably prefer your version since it does not depend on the order of the operations.
var res = grades.Select((x, i) => new {x,i}).ToLookup(y=>y.i%2, y=>y.x)
int[] earned = res[0].ToArray();
int[] possible = res[1].ToArray();
This will group all grades into two buckets based on index, then you can just do ToArray if you need result in array form.
here is an example of my comment so you do not need to change the code regardless of the list size:
ArrayList Test = new ArrayList { "10,10,20,20,30,35,40,50,45,50,45,50,50,50,20,20,45,90,85,85" };
int[] earned = new int[Test.Count / 2];
int[] Score = new int[Test.Count / 2];
int Counter = 1; // start at one so earned is the first array entered in to
foreach (string TestRow in Test)
{
if (Counter % 2 != 0) // is the counter even
{
int nextNumber = 0;
for (int i = 0; i < Score.Length; i++) // this gets the posistion for the next array entry
{
if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(Convert.ToString(Score[i])))
{
nextNumber = i;
break;
}
}
Score[nextNumber] = Convert.ToInt32(TestRow);
}
else
{
int nextNumber = 0;
for (int i = 0; i < earned.Length; i++) // this gets the posistion for the next array entry
{
if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(Convert.ToString(earned[i])))
{
nextNumber = i;
break;
}
}
earned[nextNumber] = Convert.ToInt32(TestRow);
}
Counter++
}
I'm very new to C# (And Stack Overflow, forgive me for any poor etiquette here), and I'm writing the game Mastermind in a console application. I'm trying to show a list of the user's guesses at the end of the game, and I know that using Console.WriteLine(); will just give me 30-odd lines off numbers which don't tell the user anything.
How can I alter my code so that the program displays 4 numbers in a group, at a time? For example:
1234
1234
1234
//Store numbers in a history list
ArrayList guesses = new ArrayList(); //This is the ArrayList
Console.WriteLine("Please enter your first guess.");
guess1 = Convert.ToInt32(Console.ReadLine());
guesses.Add(guess1);
foreach (int i in guesses)
{
Console.Write(i);
}
I assume that each element of your byte array is a single digit (0-9). If that assumption is invalid -- please let me know, I'll modify the code :)
Action<IEnumerable<int>> dump = null;
dump = items =>
{
if(items.Any())
{
var head = String.Join("", items.Take(4));
Console.WriteLine(head);
var tail = items.Skip(4);
dump(tail);
}
};
dump(guesses);
It looks like you're most of the way there, you have a console write that writes them all out without linebreaks. Next add an integer count and set it to zero. Increment it by one in the foreach loop. count % 4 == 0 will then be true for all counts that are a multiple of four. This means you can stick an if block there with a write-line to give you your groups of four.
List<int> endResult = new List<int>();
StringBuilder tempSb = new StringBuilder();
for(int i=0; i < groups.Count; i++)
{
if(i % 4 == 0) {
endResult.Add(int.Parse(sb.ToString()));
tempSb.Clear(); // remove what was already added
}
tempSb.Append(group[i]);
}
// check to make sure there aren't any stragglers left in
// the StringBuilder. Would happen if the count of groups is not a multiple of 4
if(groups.Count % 4 != 0) {
groups.Add(int.Parse(sb.ToString()));
}
This will give you a list of 4 digit ints and make sure you don't lose any if your the number of ints in your groups list is not a multiple of 4. Please note that I am continuing based on what you provided, so groups is the ArrayList of ints.
This is some thing I quickly put together:
Update:
ArrayList guesses = new ArrayList(); //This is the ArrayList
// Four or more
guesses.Add(1); guesses.Add(2);
guesses.Add(3);guesses.Add(4);
guesses.Add(5); guesses.Add(6); guesses.Add(7);guesses.Add(8); guesses.Add(9);
//Uncomment-Me for less than four inputs
//guesses.Add(1); guesses.Add(2);
int position = 0;
if (guesses.Count < 4)
{
for (int y = 0; y < guesses.Count; y++)
{
Console.Out.Write(guesses[y]);
}
}
else
{
for (int i = 1; i <= guesses.Count; i++)
{
if (i%4 == 0)
{
Console.Out.WriteLine(string.Format("{0}{1}{2}{3}", guesses[i - 4], guesses[i - 3],
guesses[i - 2], guesses[i - 1]));
position = i;
}
else
{
if (i == guesses.Count)
{
for (int j = position; j < i; j++)
{
Console.Out.Write(guesses[j]);
}
}
}
}
}