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Fastest way of comparing two lists without using nested loops

I have two types:
public class SubCategories
{
public static List<SubCategories> subCategories = new List<SubCategories>();
public string title { get; set; }
public string IDfromCategories { get; set; }
public string subCategoryID { get; set; }
public bool isChecked { get; set; }
}
public class UserInsideCategories
{
public string userEmail { get; set; }
public string iDfromSubCategories { get; set; }
}
And two lists both containing this object multiple times.
Now I wanna go through a list with type SubCategories and check each object, if it contains the same value as my other list of type UserInsideCategories. Specifically, I wanna know if any object on the list.SubcategoryID is equal to any object on the other list.IdFromSubCateogires.
I achieved this like so:
List<SubCategories> branch = new List<SubCategories>();
for(int i = 0; i < subCategories.Count; i++)
{
SubCategories e = new SubCategories();
for(int x = 0; x < allSubs.Count; x++)
{
if (e.IDfromCategories == allSubs[x].iDfromSubCategories)
e.isChecked = true;
}
branch.Add(e);
}
So I am using a nested loop. But since I have to do this multiple times, it takes far too long.
I also thought about turning all values from SubCategories into a simple string array and use the Contains function, to see if the current object.IDfromCategories contains the object on the array. This would mean I would NOT use a for loop. But interenally, I believe, the system is still using a loop and therefore there would be no performance benefit.
What would be the best way of checking each object if it contains a value from the other list?

You should use some kind of lookup table. Probably either HashSet or Dictionary. The former only allows checking if a key exists in the set, while the later allows you to also find the object the key belongs to.
To check all the UserInsideCategories that shares an id with a SubCategories you could write:
var dict = subCategoriesList.ToDictionary(s => s.subCategoryID, s => s);
var matches = userInsideCategoriesList.Where(l => dict.ContainsKey(l.iDfromSubCategories));
if you want matching pairs you could write:
foreach (var user in userInsideCategoriesList)
{
if (dict.TryGetValue(user.iDfromSubCategories, out var subCategory))
{
// Handle matched pairs
}
}
This assumes that the ID is unique in respective list. If you have duplicates you would need something like a multi-value dictionary. There are no multi-value dictionary built in, but I would expect there are some implementations if you search around a bit.

Access Elements which are in a string-array within a List<>

I have several string-arrays, all with this scheme:
string[0] = article number;
string[1] = description;
string[2] = amount;
Now, the List containes ~50 of these arrays.
Now I wanted to know, how I can access to these values inside the arrays.
For Example:
I enter an article number into a textbox.
Now the arrays should be searched for containing the article number in their "0" index.
How do I achieve that?
I tried something like:
for(int i = 0; i<List.length;i++)
{
if(List[i[0]] == txtBox.Text;
{
doSomething();
break;
}
}
But of course that's not working well yet.

You have a couple of problems with you existing code:
To access an index within another index the [] need to go after each other not inside. i.e. [0][0] not [0[0]]
Because you don't have any {} for the if statement the loop will break after its first iteration.
Try changing it to something like this
for(int i = 0; i<List.length;i++)
{
if(List[i][0] == txtBox.Text)
{
doSomething();
break;
}
}
As other comments have pointed out it would be best to use a class and linq for this something like this
public class MyClass
{
public string ArticleNumber {get; set;}
public string Description {get; set;}
}
The use linq to search it
var list = new List<MyClass>()
if (list.Any(i => i.ArticleNumber.Equals(txtBox.Text)))
{
DoSomething();
}

I would suggest you define a class like this
public class Article
{
public string ArticleNumber { get; set;}
public string Description { get; set; }
public string Amount { get; set; }
}
whose purpose would be to hold all the information regarding the article, that now are stored in an array, which is not the best way.
Then you should create a list of arcticles:
var articles = new List<Article>();
in which you will add your articles.
Doing so, that you want would be the following:
// This would check if there is any article in your list, whose article
// number starts with the letters in the txtBox.Text
if(articles.Any(article=>article.ArticleNumber.Contains(txtBox.Text))
DoSomething();
// If you want to search if there is any article, whose article number
// matches the inserted number in the textbox, then you have to change the
// above
if(articles.Any(article=>article.ArticleNumber == txtBox.Text))
DoSomething();
If your intention is to use the article that may be found that exists, then we should change the above to the following:
var article = articles.FirstOrDefault(article=>
article.ArticleNumber.Contains(txtBox.Text));
or
var article = articles.FirstOrDefault(article=>
article.ArticleNumber == txtBox.Text);
if(article!=null)
DoSomething();
The difference between this version and the first version is the fact that you know you could use the article if it is found, without querying again your sequence.

I cannot create object that contains arrays of property inside object

I am a new developer to c# MVC3.
I have a problem that I cannot create object that contains arrays of property inside object.
For example, I want to create instance ABC.Property[] for 10 arrays.
ABC.Property[0]
ABC.Property[1]
ABC.Property[2]
.....
....
ABC.Property[10]
I used debug mode to check and found out that ABC.Property[] is null. So i cannot add the value back to that object's array.
How to crate object with propeties's array?
thank you.
namespace finance3.Models
{
public class Expected_and_Risk
{
public decimal[] Prop { get; set; }
public decimal[] Forecast { get; set; }
public string[] Name { get; set; }
public decimal[] AxB { get; set; }
public decimal[] PowAxB { get; set; }
public decimal ExpectValue(Expected_and_Risk abc)
{
decimal count = abc.Forecast.Count();
Expected_and_Risk Result = new Expected_and_Risk();
for (int i = 0 ; i < count ; i++)
{
// here is the problem
// i cannot add new data to array because it has no dimemsion and i tried this
//
// Expected_and_Risk[] Result = new Expected_and_Risk[10];
//
// but it didn't work
Result.Name[i] = abc.Name[i];
Result.Prop[i] = abc.Prop[i];
Result.Forecast[i] = abc.Forecast[i];
Result.AxB[i] = abc.Prop[i] * abc.Forecast[i];
decimal a = Result.AxB[i];
decimal sumAxB =+ a;
double temp = (double)(a * a) ;
Result.PowAxB[i] = (decimal)(temp);
}
return Convert.ToDecimal(Result);
}
}
}

You need to add a Constructor in your class and in that constructor you can define the size for your property
public class Expected_and_Risk
{
//......//your code here
public Expected_and_Risk()
{
this.Prop = new decimal[10]; // this will define an array of 10 decimal elements for Prop
}
}
Also read about object oriented programming, Also check out this article An Intro to Constructors in C#

At the moment, you've got arrays within Expected_and_Risk, but you're never initializing the variables. You could do so within a constructor:
public Expected_and_Risk(int count)
{
Name = new string[count];
...
}
... but I'd suggest that's actually a nasty design. Any time you have lots of collections, all with the same count, where x[0] corresponds to y[0] and z[0] etc, you should consider having one collection of a custom type representing the encapsulation of those properties. For example:
// Must be an int, not a decimal - you can't create an array with a decimal count
int count = abc.Forecast.Count();
// Note: rename type to follow .NET naming conventions
Expected_and_Risk[] results = new Expected_and_Risk[count];
for (int i = 0; i < count; i++)
{
results[i].Name = abc[i].Name;
...
}
... except that of course now abc would be an array too. (It's not clear whether you're really just trying to copy all the values here, or whether you've got some business logic involved. There are better ways of copying values.)
Alternatively, if you really do want collections within Expected_and_Risk, you might want to consider using List<T> instead of arrays. That way you don't need to specify the count up-front.

Better way could be to add following method into Expected_and_Risk class and call it from within constructor.
EDIT - edit is done to make Initialize private, and call it within constructor.
void Initialize(int size)
{
Prop = new decimal[size];
AxB = new decimal[size];
Forecast = new decimal[size];
PowAxB = new decimal[size];
Name = new string[size];
}
public Expected_and_Risk(int size)
{
....
Initialize(size);
}
After that use it in ExpectValue like
Expected_and_Risk Result = new Expected_and_Risk(size)// size is 10 in example;

Architecturally speaking, how should I replace an extremely large switch statement with something more manageable?

EDIT 1: Forgot to add the nested property curve ball.
UPDATE: I have chosen #mtazva's answer as that was the preferred solution for my specific case. In retrospect, I asked a general question with a very specific example and I believe that ended up confusing everyone (or maybe just me) as to what the question was exactly. I do believe the general question has been answered as well (see the Strategy pattern answers and links). Thanks everyone!
Large switch statements obviously smell and I have seen some links on how you could do this with a dictionary that maps to functions. But I'm wondering if there is a better (or smarter way) to do this? In a way, this is a question I've always sort of had rolling around in the back of my head but never really had a good solution to.
This question stemmed from another question I asked earlier: How to select all the values of an object's property on a list of typed objects in .Net with C#
Here is an example class I'm working with (from an external source):
public class NestedGameInfoObject
{
public string NestedName { get; set; }
public int NestedIntValue { get; set; }
public decimal NestedDecimalValue { get; set; }
}
public class GameInfo
{
public int UserId { get; set; }
public int MatchesWon { get; set; }
public long BulletsFired { get; set; }
public string LastLevelVisited { get; set; }
public NestedGameInfoObject SuperCoolNestedGameInfo { get; set; }
// thousands more of these
}
Unfortunately, this is coming from an external source... imagine a HUGE data dump from Grand Theft Auto or something.
And I want to get just a small cross section of a list of these objects. Imagine we want to be able to compare you with a bunch of your friends' game info objects. An individual result for one user would look like this:
public class MyResult
{
public int UserId { get; set; } // user id from above object
public string ResultValue { get; set; } // one of the value fields from above with .ToString() executed on it
}
And an example of what I want to replace with something more manageable (believe me, I DON'T want to be maintaining this monster switch statement):
const int MATCHES_WON = 1;
const int BULLETS_FIRED = 2;
const int NESTED_INT = 3;
public static List<MyResult> GetMyResult(GameInfo[] gameInfos, int input)
{
var output = new List<MyResult>();
switch(input)
{
case MATCHES_WON:
output = gameInfos.Select(x => new MyResult()
{
UserId = x.UserId,
ResultValue = x.MatchesWon.ToString()
}).ToList<MyResult>();
break;
case BULLETS_FIRED:
output = gameInfos.Select(x => new MyResult()
{
UserId = x.UserId,
ResultValue = x.BulletsFired.ToString()
}).ToList<MyResult>();
break;
case NESTED_INT:
output = gameInfos.Select(x => new MyResult()
{
UserId = x.UserId,
ResultValue = x.SuperCoolNestedGameInfo.NestedIntValue.ToString()
}).ToList<MyResult>();
break;
// ad nauseum
}
return output;
}
So the question is are there any reasonable ways to manage this beast? What I'd really like is a dynamic way to get this info in case that initial object changes (more game info properties are added, for instance). Is there a better way to architect this so it's less clumsy?

I think your first sentence eluded to what is probably the most reasonable solution: some form of dictionary mapping values to methods.
For example, you could define a static Dictionary<int, func<GameInfo, string>>, where each value such as MATCHES_WON would be added with a corresponding lambda that extracts the appropriate value (assuming your constants, etc are defined as shown in your example):
private static Dictionary<int, Func<GameInfo, string>> valueExtractors =
new Dictionary<int, Func<GameInfo, string>>() {
{MATCHES_WON, gi => gi.MatchesWon.ToString()},
{BULLETS_FIRED, gi => gi.BulletsFired.ToString()},
//.... etc for all value extractions
};
You can then use this dictionary to extract the value in your sample method:
public static List<MyResult> GetMyResult(GameInfo[] gameInfos, int input)
{
return gameInfo.Select(gi => new MyResult()
{
UserId = gi.UserId,
ResultValue = valueExtractors[input](gi)
}).ToList<MyResult>();
}
Outside of this option, you could potentially have some sort of file/database/stored lookup with the number and the property name, then use reflection to extract the value, but that would obviously not perform as well.

I think this code is getting out of hand a bit. You're effectively using constants to index properties - and this is creating fragile code that you're looking to use some technique - such as - reflection, dictionaries, etc - to control the increased complexity.
Effectively the approach that you're using now will end up with code like this:
var results = GetMyResult(gameInfos, BULLETS_FIRED);
The alternative is to define an extension method that lets you do this:
var results = gameInfos.ToMyResults(gi => gi.BulletsFired);
This is strongly-typed, it doesn't require constants, switch statements, reflection, or anything arcane.
Just write these extension methods and you're done:
public static class GameInfoEx
{
public static IEnumerable<MyResult> ToMyResults(
this IEnumerable<GameInfo> gameInfos,
Func<GameInfo, object> selector)
{
return gameInfos.Select(gi => gi.ToMyResult(selector));
}
public static MyResult ToMyResult(
this GameInfo gameInfo,
Func<GameInfo, object> selector)
{
return new MyResult()
{
UserId = gameInfo.UserId,
ResultValue = selector(gameInfo).ToString()
};
}
}
Does that work for you?

You can use reflection for theses purposes. You can implement custom attributes, mark your properties, etc. Also, it is dynamic way to get info about your class if it changes.

If you want to manage switch code I would point you at Design Patterns book (GoF) and suggest possibly looking at patterns like Strategy and possibly Factory (thats when we talk about general case use, your case isn't very suited for Factory) and implementing them.
While switch statement still has to be left somewhere after refactoring to pattern is complete (for example, in a place where you select strategy by id), code will be much more maintanable and clear.
That said about general switch maintenance, if they become beast like, I am not sure its best solution given how similar your case statements look.
I am 100% sure you can create some method (possibly an extension method) that will be accepting desired property accessor lambda, that should be used when results are generated.

If you want your code to be more generic, I agree with the suggestion of a dictionary or some kind of lookup pattern.
You could store functions in the dictionary, but they seemly all perform the same operation - getting the value from a property. This is ripe for reflection.
I'd store all your properties in a dictionary with an enum (prefer an enum to a const) as the key, and a PropertyInfo - or, less preferred, a string which describes the name of the property - as the value. You then call the GetValue() method on the PropertyInfo object to retrieve the value from the object / class.
Here's an example where I'm mapping enum values to their 'same named' properties in a class, and then using reflection to retrieve the values out of a class.
public enum Properties
{
A,
B
}
public class Test
{
public string A { get; set; }
public int B { get; set; }
}
static void Main()
{
var test = new Test() { A = "A value", B = 100 };
var lookup = new Dictionary<Properties, System.Reflection.PropertyInfo>();
var properties = typeof(Test).GetProperties().ToList();
foreach (var property in properties)
{
Properties propertyKey;
if (Enum.TryParse(property.Name, out propertyKey))
{
lookup.Add(propertyKey, property);
}
}
Console.WriteLine("A is " + lookup[Properties.A].GetValue(test, null));
Console.WriteLine("B is " + lookup[Properties.B].GetValue(test, null));
}
You can map your const values to the names of the properties, PropertyInfo objects which relate to those properties, functions which will retrieve the property values... whatever you think suits your needs.
Of course you will need some mapping - somewhere along the way you will be depending on your input value (the const) mapping to a specific property. The method by which you can get this data might determine the best mapping structure and pattern for you.

I think the way to go is indeed some kind of mapping from one value (int) to something that is somehow a function that knows how to extract a value.
If you really want to keep it extensible, so that you can easily add some without touching the code, and possibly accessing more complex properties (ie. nested properties, do some basic computation), you may want to keep that in a separate source.
I think one way to do this is to rely on the Scripting Services, for instance evaluating a simple IronPython expression to extract a value...
For instance in a file you could store something like :
<GameStats>
<GameStat name="MatchesWon" id="1">
<Expression>
currentGameInfo.BulletsFired.ToString()
</Expression>
</GameStat>
<GameStat name="FancyStat" id="2">
<Expression>
currentGameInfo.SuperCoolNestedGameInfo.NestedIntValue.ToString()
</Expression>
</GameStat>
</GameStats>
and then, depending on the requested stat, you always end up retrieving the general GameInfos. You can them have some kind of foreach loop with :
foreach( var gameInfo in gameInfos){
var currentGameInfo = gameInfo
//evaluate the expression for this currentGameInfo
return yield resultOfEvaluation
}
See http://www.voidspace.org.uk/ironpython/dlr_hosting.shtml for examples on how to embed IronPython Scripting in a .NET application.
NOTE: when working with this kind of stuff, there are several things you must really be careful about:
this potentially allows someone to inject code in your application ...
you should measure the performance impact of Dynamic evaluation in here

I don't have a solution to your switch problem off the top of my head, but you could certainly reduce the code by using a class that can automatically map all the fields you need. Check out http://automapper.org/.

I would not have written the GetMyResult method in the first place. All it is doing is transforming GameInfo sequence into MyResult sequence. Doing it with Linq would be easier and more expressive.
Instead of calling
var myResultSequence = GetMyResult(gameInfo, MatchesWon);
I would simply call
var myResultSequence = gameInfo.Select(x => new MyResult() {
UserId = x.UserId,
ResultValue = x.MatchesWon.ToString()
});
To make it more succinct you can pass the UserId and ResultValue in constructor
var myResultSequence =
gameInfo.Select(x => new MyResult(x.UserId, x.MatchesWon.ToString()));
Refactor only if you see the selects getting duplicated too much.

This is one possible way without using reflection:
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
namespace ConsoleApplication1
{
public class GameInfo
{
public int UserId { get; set; }
public int MatchesWon { get; set; }
public long BulletsFired { get; set; }
public string LastLevelVisited { get; set; }
// thousands more of these
}
public class MyResult
{
public int UserId { get; set; } // user id from above object
public string ResultValue { get; set; } // one of the value fields from above with .ToString() executed on it
}
public enum DataType
{
MatchesWon = 1,
BulletsFired = 2,
// add more as needed
}
class Program
{
private static Dictionary<DataType, Func<GameInfo, object>> getDataFuncs
= new Dictionary<DataType, Func<GameInfo, object>>
{
{ DataType.MatchesWon, info => info.MatchesWon },
{ DataType.BulletsFired, info => info.BulletsFired },
// add more as needed
};
public static IEnumerable<MyResult> GetMyResult(GameInfo[] gameInfos, DataType input)
{
var getDataFunc = getDataFuncs[input];
return gameInfos.Select(info => new MyResult()
{
UserId = info.UserId,
ResultValue = getDataFunc(info).ToString()
});
}
static void Main(string[] args)
{
var testData = new GameInfo[] {
new GameInfo { UserId="a", BulletsFired = 99, MatchesWon = 2 },
new GameInfo { UserId="b", BulletsFired = 0, MatchesWon = 0 },
};
// you can now easily select whatever data you need, in a type-safe manner
var dataToGet = DataType.MatchesWon;
var results = GetMyResult(testData, dataToGet);
}
}
}

Purely on the question of large switch statements, it is notable that there are 2 variants of the Cyclomatic Complexity metric in common use. The "original" counts each case statement as a branch and so it increments the complexity metric by 1 - which results in a very high value caused by many switches. The "variant" counts the switch statement as a single branch - this is effectively considering it as a sequence of non-branching statements, which is more in keeping with the "understandability" goal of controlling complexity.

which c# collection to use instead of List<KeyValuePair<string, double>>?

I want to store data such as
{
{"apple",15 }
{"pear",12.5 }
{"", 10 }
{"", 0.45 }
}
Data will be plotted on a bar chart (string will be the legend and double will be the value)
Insert order is important.
Perfs don't matter.
Strings could be duplicated or empty. (values could be duplicated too)
I need to get min and max values (easily if possible) to set the scale.
I use
List<KeyValuePair<string, double>> data = new List<KeyValuePair<string, double>>();
data.Add(new KeyValuePair<string,double>("",i));
Quite boring and unreadable.
Is there a cleaner way to do it ?
StringDoubleCollection data = new StringDoubleCollection();
data.add("apple",15);
data.add("",10);
double max = data.values.Max();
double min = data.values.Min();
if not how to get the max value of List<KeyValuePair<string, double>> without too much hassle
NameValueCollection looks nice but its a <string,string> I need a <string,double>

You could create a class like the following:
class X
{
public string Name { get; set; }
public double Value { get; set; }
// name is an optional parameter (this means it can be used only in C# 4)
public X(double value, string name = "")
{
this.Name = name;
this.Value = value;
}
// whatever
}
And then get maximum and minimum values using LINQ with a selector:
var data = new List<X>();
data.Add(new X(35.0, "Apple"))
data.Add(new X(50.0));
double max = data.Max(a => a.Value);
double min = data.Min(a => a.Value);
EDIT: if the code above still seems unreadable to you try to improve it using an operator for cases in which you want to have just the value.
// Inside X class...
public static implicit operator X(double d)
{
return new X(d);
}
// Somewhere else...
data.Add(50.0);

To determine which data structure you really want, lets look at your usage patterns.
Insert order matters.
You don't access your items by key.
You want min and max.
A heap offers min or max, but doesn't preserve order. A hash based dictionary also doesn't preserve order. A List is actually a good choice for your data structure. It is available and offers excellent support.
You can prettify your code by defining classes for both the data structure and your bar data. And you can add min/max functionality to the collection. Note: I didn't use the Linq Min/Max functions, because they return the minimum value, not the minimum element.
public class BarGraphData {
public string Legend { get; set; }
public double Value { get; set; }
}
public class BarGraphDataCollection : List<BarGraphData> {
// add necessary constructors, if any
public BarGraphData Min() {
BarGraphData min = null;
// finds the minmum item
// prefers the item with the lowest index
foreach (BarGraphData item in this) {
if ( min == null )
min = item;
else if ( item.Value < min.Value )
min = item;
}
if ( min == null )
throw new InvalidOperationException("The list is empty.");
return min;
}
public BarGraphData Max() {
// similar implementation as Min
}
}

Have you looked at LookUp?
The only problem is that it's immutable, so you need to be able to create your collection in one go.
As Anthony Pegram notes, it's a bit of a pain to create one. It depends on where your data is coming from. Have a look at the ToLookup method.

If it's worth it for usability (i.e. you're using awkward collections of List<KeyValuePair<string, double>> everywhere, it might just be worth it to implement StringDoubleCollection. It wouldn't be that difficult to wrap the underlying collection with the friendlier syntax you've described in your example.
And, as other comments / answers are suggesting, the Framework doesn't seem to provide a simpler solution that matches all of your requirements...
As for "max value", I assume you mean the Key-Value Pair with the greatest value. It can be retrieved like so:
var max = list.Select(kvp => kvp.Value).Max();

Just define your own model class to hold the data instead of depending on a KeyValuePair and everything becomes cleaner:
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
public class Fruit
{
public string Name {get; set;}
public double Price {get; set;}
}
public class Program
{
public static void Main()
{
List<Fruit> _myFruit = new List<Fruit>();
_myFruit.Add(new Fruit{Name="apple", Price=15 });
_myFruit.Add(new Fruit{Name="pear", Price=12.5 });
_myFruit.Add(new Fruit{Name="", Price=10 });
_myFruit.Add(new Fruit{Name="", Price=0.45 });
// etc...
}
}

What about implementing the StringDoubleCollection to work like you want...
public class StringDoubleCollection
{
private List<KeyValuePair<string, double>> myValues;
public List<double> values
{
get { return myValues.Select(keyValuePair => keyValuePair.Value).ToList(); }
}
public void add(string key, double value)
{
myValues.Add(new KeyValuePair<string,double>(key,value));
}
}

You can implementing Dictionary<key, value>
Dictionary<string, string> openWith = new Dictionary<string, string>();
openWith.Add("txt", "notepad.exe");
openWith.Add("bmp", "paint.exe");
openWith.Add("dib", "paint.exe");
openWith.Add("rtf", "wordpad.exe");
https://learn.microsoft.com/pt-br/dotnet/api/system.collections.generic.dictionary-2?view=net-5.0