We Keep Coding

Passing a value to a class keeps returning 0

this might be a simple/dumb question but I'm trying to figure out why my code keeps returning 0. I don't think my syntax for passing the value is correct but I cant figure out the proper way of doing it.
class ICESMARK
{
static int ICECount = 0;
public double average = 0;
public double[] ICES = new double[8];
public ICESMARK(double Mark)
{
Mark = ICES[ICECount];
if (ICECount == (ICES.Length - 1))
{
for (int x = 0; x < ICES.Length; x++)
{
average += ICES[x];
}
average /= ICES.Length;
}
ICECount++;
}
}
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
ICESMARK[] ICE = new ICESMARK[8];
//LABSMARK[] LAB = new LABSMARK[6];
double userInput;
for (int counter = 0; counter < ICE.Length ; counter++)
{
Console.Write("Please enter your mark for ICE{0}: ", counter + 1 );
bool ifInt = double.TryParse(Console.ReadLine(), out userInput);
ICE[counter] = new ICESMARK(userInput);
}
Console.WriteLine(ICE[1].average);
Console.ReadLine();
}
}
ICE[1].average - Displays 0
Also if anyone has a more efficient way of doing this, feel free to let me know. Except for the average, is gotta be a calculation, cant use the built in method.

Simplest code to get your work done:
void Main()
{
double[] ICE = new double[8];
double userInput = 0.0;
for (int counter = 0; counter < ICE.Length; counter++)
{
Console.WriteLine($"Please enter your mark for ICE {counter}: ");
bool isNumerical = false;
while(!isNumerical)
isNumerical = double.TryParse(Console.ReadLine(), out userInput);
ICE[counter] = userInput;
}
Console.WriteLine("Average : " + ICE.Average());
Console.ReadLine();
}
How it works:
Removed all the frills, you don't need an extra class just for this purpose
Made it mandatory for code to enter valid double value to fill all the slots
Finally used Linq Average to calculate Average value

I want to clarify that yes there are easier ways to solve this, but the entire point of the project was to use a class and it specifically says I cant use built in methods such as "array.average".
Sorry that my code was super messy, I was honestly all over the place and very confused. Having that said I finally arrived to this solution. Thanks to everyone who tried to help! really appreciate it, some tips here were very helpful in solving and cleaning up my code.
class ICESMARK
{
public static int ICECount = 0;
public static double average = 0;
public ICESMARK(double Mark)
{
average += Mark;
if (ICECount < 8) { ICECount++; }
if (ICECount == 8) { average /= ICECount;}
}
}
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
ICESMARK[] ICE = new ICESMARK[8];
double userInput;
for (int counter = 0; counter < ICE.Length ; counter++)
{
Console.Write("Please enter your mark for ICE{0}: ", counter + 1 );
bool ifInt = double.TryParse(Console.ReadLine(), out userInput);
ICE[counter] = new ICESMARK(userInput);
Console.WriteLine(ICESMARK.ICECount);
}
Console.WriteLine(ICESMARK.average);
Console.WriteLine(ICESMARK.ICECount);
Console.ReadLine();
}
}

c# comparing list of IDs

I have a List<Keyword> where Keyword class is:
public string keyword;
public List<int> ids;
public int hidden;
public int live;
public bool worked;
Keyword has its own keyword, a set of 20 ids, live by default is set to 1 and hidden to 0.
I just need to iterate over the whole main List to invalidate those keywords whose number of same ids is greater than 6, so comparing every pair, if the second one has more than 6 ids repeated respect to the first one, hidden is set to 1 and live to 0.
The algorithm is very basic but it takes too long when the main list has many elements.
I'm trying to guess if there could be any method I could use to increase the speed.
The basic algorithm I use is:
foreach (Keyword main_keyword in lista_de_keywords_live)
{
if (main_keyword.worked) {
continue;
}
foreach (Keyword keyword_to_compare in lista_de_keywords_live)
{
if (keyword_to_compare.worked || keyword_to_compare.id == main_keyword.id) continue;
n_ids_same = 0;
foreach (int id in main_keyword.ids)
{
if (keyword_to_compare._lista_models.IndexOf(id) >= 0)
{
if (++n_ids_same >= 6) break;
}
}
if (n_ids_same >= 6)
{
keyword_to_compare.hidden = 1;
keyword_to_compare.live = 0;
keyword_to_compare.worked = true;
}
}
}

The code below is an example of how you would use a HashSet for your problem. However, I would not recommend using it in this scenario. On the other hand, the idea of sorting the ids to make the comparison faster still.
Run it in a Console Project to try it out.
Notice that once I'm done adding new ids to a keyword, I sort them. This makes the comparison faster later on.
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
namespace KeywordExample
{
public class Keyword
{
public List<int> ids;
public int hidden;
public int live;
public bool worked;
public Keyword()
{
ids = new List<int>();
hidden = 0;
live = 1;
worked = false;
}
public override string ToString()
{
StringBuilder s = new StringBuilder();
if (ids.Count > 0)
{
s.Append(ids[0]);
for (int i = 1; i < ids.Count; i++)
{
s.Append(',' + ids[i].ToString());
}
}
return s.ToString();
}
}
public class KeywordComparer : EqualityComparer<Keyword>
{
public override bool Equals(Keyword k1, Keyword k2)
{
int equals = 0;
int i = 0;
int j = 0;
//based on sorted ids
while (i < k1.ids.Count && j < k2.ids.Count)
{
if (k1.ids[i] < k2.ids[j])
{
i++;
}
else if (k1.ids[i] > k2.ids[j])
{
j++;
}
else
{
equals++;
i++;
j++;
}
}
return equals >= 6;
}
public override int GetHashCode(Keyword keyword)
{
return 0;//notice that using the same hash for all keywords gives you an O(n^2) time complexity though.
}
}
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
List<Keyword> listOfKeywordsLive = new List<Keyword>();
//add some values
Random random = new Random();
int n = 10;
int sizeOfMaxId = 20;
for (int i = 0; i < n; i++)
{
var newKeyword = new Keyword();
for (int j = 0; j < 20; j++)
{
newKeyword.ids.Add(random.Next(sizeOfMaxId) + 1);
}
newKeyword.ids.Sort(); //sorting the ids
listOfKeywordsLive.Add(newKeyword);
}
//solution here
HashSet<Keyword> set = new HashSet<Keyword>(new KeywordComparer());
set.Add(listOfKeywordsLive[0]);
for (int i = 1; i < listOfKeywordsLive.Count; i++)
{
Keyword keywordToCompare = listOfKeywordsLive[i];
if (!set.Add(keywordToCompare))
{
keywordToCompare.hidden = 1;
keywordToCompare.live = 0;
keywordToCompare.worked = true;
}
}
//print all keywords to check
Console.WriteLine(set.Count + "/" + n + " inserted");
foreach (var keyword in set)
{
Console.WriteLine(keyword);
}
}
}
}

The obvious source of inefficiency is the way you calculate intersection of two lists (of ids). The algorithm is O(n^2). This is by the way problem that relational databases solve for every join and your approach would be called loop join. The main efficient strategies are hash join and merge join. For your scenario the latter approach may be better I guess, but you can also try HashSets if you like.
The second source of inefficiency is repeating everything twice. As (a join b) is equal to (b join a), you do not need two cycles over the whole List<Keyword>. Actually, you only need to loop over the non duplicate ones.
Using some code from here, you can write the algorithm like:
Parallel.ForEach(list, k => k.ids.Sort());
List<Keyword> result = new List<Keyword>();
foreach (var k in list)
{
if (result.Any(r => r.ids.IntersectSorted(k.ids, Comparer<int>.Default)
.Skip(5)
.Any()))
{
k.hidden = 1;
k.live = 0;
k.worked = true;
}
else
{
result.Add(k);
}
}
If you replace the linq with just the index manipulation approach (see the link above), it would be a tiny bit faster I guess.

fastest way to compare string elements with each other

I have a list with a lot of strings (>5000) where I have to take the first element and compare it to all following elements. Eg. consider this list of string:
{ one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten }. Now I take one and compare it with two, three, four, ... afterwards I take two and compare it with three, four, ...
I believe the lookup is the problem why this takes so long. On a normal hdd (7200rpm) it takes about 30 seconds, on a ssd 10 seconds. I just don't know how I can speed this up even more. All strings inside the list are ordered by ascending and it is important to check them in this order. If it can speed things up considerably I would not mind to have an unordered list.
I took a look into hashset but I need the checking order so that would not work even with the fast contain method.
EDIT: As it looks like I am not clear enough and as wanted by Dusan here is the complete code. My problem case: I have a lot of directories, with similar names and am getting a collection with all directory names only and comparing them with each other for similarity and writing that. Hence the comparison between hdd and ssd. But that is weird because I am not writing instantly, instead putting it in a field and writing in the end. Still there is a difference in speed.
Why did I not include the whole code? Because I believe my core issue here is the lookup of value from the list and the comparison between the 2 strings. Everything else should already be sufficiently fast, adding to list, looking in the blacklist (hashset) and getting a list of dir names.
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using System.IO;
using System.Text.RegularExpressions;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.Threading;
namespace Similarity
{
/// <summary>
/// Credit http://www.dotnetperls.com/levenshtein
/// Contains approximate string matching
/// </summary>
internal 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];
}
}
internal class Program
{
#region Properties
private static HashSet<string> _blackList = new HashSet<string>();
public static HashSet<string> blackList
{
get
{
return _blackList;
}
}
public static void AddBlackListEntry(string line)
{
blackList.Add(line);
}
private static List<string> _similar = new List<string>();
public static List<string> similar
{
get
{
return _similar;
}
}
public static void AddSimilarEntry(string s)
{
similar.Add(s);
}
#endregion Properties
private static void Main(string[] args)
{
Clean();
var directories = Directory.EnumerateDirectories(Directory.GetCurrentDirectory(), "*", SearchOption.TopDirectoryOnly)
.Select(x => new DirectoryInfo(x).Name).OrderBy(y => new DirectoryInfo(y).Name).ToList();
using (StreamWriter sw = new StreamWriter(#"result.txt"))
{
foreach (var item in directories)
{
Console.WriteLine(item);
sw.WriteLine(item);
}
Console.WriteLine("Amount of directories: " + directories.Count());
}
if (directories.Count != 0)
{
StartSimilarityCheck(directories);
}
else
{
Console.WriteLine("No directories");
}
WriteResult(similar);
Console.WriteLine("Finish. Press any key to exit...");
Console.ReadKey();
}
private static void StartSimilarityCheck(List<string> whiteList)
{
int counter = 0; // how many did we check yet?
var watch = Stopwatch.StartNew();
foreach (var dirName in whiteList)
{
bool insertDirName = true;
if (!IsBlackList(dirName))
{
// start the next element
for (int i = counter + 1; i <= whiteList.Count; i++)
{
// end of index reached
if (i == whiteList.Count)
{
break;
}
int similiariy = LevenshteinDistance.Compute(dirName, whiteList[i]);
// low score means high similarity
if (similiariy < 2)
{
if (insertDirName)
{
//Writer(dirName);
AddSimilarEntry(dirName);
insertDirName = false;
}
//Writer(whiteList[i]);
AddSimilarEntry(dirName);
AddBlackListEntry(whiteList[i]);
}
}
}
Console.WriteLine(counter);
//Console.WriteLine("Skip: {0}", dirName);
counter++;
}
watch.Stop();
Console.WriteLine("Time: " + watch.ElapsedMilliseconds / 1000);
}
private static void WriteResult(List<string> list)
{
using (StreamWriter sw = new StreamWriter(#"similar.txt", true, Encoding.UTF8, 65536))
{
foreach (var item in list)
{
sw.WriteLine(item);
}
}
}
private static void Clean()
{
// yeah hardcoded file names incoming. Better than global variables??
try
{
if (File.Exists(#"similar.txt"))
{
File.Delete(#"similar.txt");
}
if (File.Exists(#"result.txt"))
{
File.Delete(#"result.txt");
}
}
catch (Exception)
{
throw;
}
}
private static void Writer(string s)
{
using (StreamWriter sw = new StreamWriter(#"similar.txt", true, Encoding.UTF8, 65536))
{
sw.WriteLine(s);
}
}
private static bool IsBlackList(string name)
{
return blackList.Contains(name);
}
}
To fix the bottleneck which is the second for-loop insert an if-condition which checks if similiariy is >= than what we want, if that is the case then break the loop. now it runs in 1 second. thanks everyone

Your inner loop uses a strange double check. This may prevent an important JIT optimization, removal of redundant range checks.
//foreach (var item myList)
for (int j = 0; j < myList.Count-1; j++)
{
string item1 = myList[j];
for (int i = j + 1; i < myList.Count; i++)
{
string item2 = myList[i];
// if (i == myList.Count)
...
}
}

The amount of downvotes is crazy but oh well... I found the reason for my performance issue / bottleneck thanks to the comments.
The second for loop inside StartSimilarityCheck() iterates over all entries, which in itself is no problem but when viewed under performance issues and efficient, is bad. The solution is to only check strings which are in the neighborhood but how do we know if they are?
First, we get a list which is ordered by ascension. That gives us a rough overview of similar strings. Now we define a threshold of Levenshtein score (smaller score is higher similarity between two strings). If the score is higher than the threshold it means they are not too similar, thus we can break out of the inner loop. That saves time and the program can finish really fast. Notice that that way is not bullet proof, IMHO because if the first string is 0Directory it will be at the beginning part of the list but a string like zDirectory will be further down and could be missed. Correct me if I am wrong..
private static void StartSimilarityCheck(List<string> whiteList)
{
var watch = Stopwatch.StartNew();
for (int j = 0; j < whiteList.Count - 1; j++)
{
string dirName = whiteList[j];
bool insertDirName = true;
int threshold = 2;
if (!IsBlackList(dirName))
{
// start the next element
for (int i = j + 1; i < whiteList.Count; i++)
{
// end of index reached
if (i == whiteList.Count)
{
break;
}
int similiarity = LevenshteinDistance.Compute(dirName, whiteList[i]);
if (similiarity >= threshold)
{
break;
}
// low score means high similarity
if (similiarity <= threshold)
{
if (insertDirName)
{
AddSimilarEntry(dirName);
AddSimilarEntry(whiteList[i]);
AddBlackListEntry(whiteList[i]);
insertDirName = false;
}
else
{
AddBlackListEntry(whiteList[i]);
}
}
}
}
Console.WriteLine(j);
}
watch.Stop();
Console.WriteLine("Ms: " + watch.ElapsedMilliseconds);
Console.WriteLine("Similar entries: " + similar.Count);
}

Separate functions without duplicating code

I am currently working on a program to traverse through a list of numbers with two different functions to find the sum and a specific value. Here is the code that I have implemented
class Program
{
static int i, sum;
static List<int> store = new List<int>();
static void Main(string[] args)
{
for (i = 0; i < 100; i++)
{
store.Add(i);
}
i = 0;
TraverseList();
Console.ReadLine();
}
static void TraverseList()
{
while (i < store.Count)
{
FindValue();
FindSum();
i++;
}
Console.WriteLine("The sum is {0}", sum);
}
static void FindValue()
{
if (store[i] == 40)
{
Console.WriteLine("Value is 40");
}
}
static void FindSum()
{
sum = sum + store[i];
}
}
I was thinking of separating FindSum and FindValue into two different functions and not calling them in TraverseList. Is there any other way of doing it rather the duplicating the common code of list traversal in those two functions as I have done here
class Program
{
static int i, sum;
static List<int> store = new List<int>();
static void Main(string[] args)
{
for (i = 0; i < 100; i++)
{
store.Add(i);
}
i = 0;
FindValue();
i = 0;
FindSum();
Console.ReadLine();
}
static void FindValue()
{
while (i < store.Count)
{
if (store[i] == 40)
{
Console.WriteLine("Value is 40");
}
i++;
}
}
static void FindSum()
{
while (i < store.Count)
{
sum = sum + store[i];
i++;
}
Console.WriteLine("The sum is {0}", sum);
}
}

To find the sum of a series of numbers you can use the simple LINQ function:
List<int> numbers = new List<int>();
int sum = numbers.Sum();
I am not sure what you mean by find a value. If you want to check if one of the numbers in a series is equal to a certain value you can use the LINQ function Any:
int myValue = 40;
bool hasMyValue = numbers.Any(i => i == myValue);
This uses a lambda expression which executes a function and passes each element in the collection to the function. The function returns true or false to indicate that the element is a match for the Any test.
If instead you want to check for how many numbers in a sequence match a certain value you can instead use the Count function like so:
int numberOfMatches = numbers.Count(i => i == myValue);

First thing - I would use foreach instead of while, regarding the duplicate code (assuming you are not using Linq) - I think it's fine
A taste how Linq can simplify your code:
var FindSum = store.Sum();
var FindValue = store.FindAll(x => x == 40);

I cannot stress enough how bad it is to have i and sum as class members. Especially i. It will make your code very fragile, and hard to work with. Try to make each method as isolated from the rest of the code as possible.
Try something like this instead:
static void Main( string[] args )
{
List<int> store = new List<int>();
for( int i = 0; i < 100; i++ )
store.Add( i );
FindValue( store );
FindSum( store );
Console.ReadLine();
}
static void FindValue( List<int> list )
{
for( int i = 0; i < list.Count; i++ )
{
if( list[i] == 40 )
Console.WriteLine( "Value is 40" );
}
}
static void FindSum( List<int> list )
{
int sum = 0;
for( int i = 0; i < list.Count; i++ )
sum += list[i];
Console.WriteLine( "The sum is {0}", sum );
}
It is perfectly fine (and normal) to duplicate the looping, it's just a single line. You could also use a foreach here.
Also, disregard everyone telling you to use LINQ. You're obviously new to programming and you should learn the basics first.

mergesort - with an insignificant change throws SystemInvalidOperationException

A very strange thing occured in my program. Here is the simplified code.
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
ArrayList numbers = new ArrayList();
numbers.Add(1);
numbers.Add(3);
numbers.Add(4);
numbers.Add(2);
var it = Sorts.MergeSort((ArrayList)numbers.Clone());
Sorts.PrintArray(it, "mergesort");
Console.WriteLine("DONE");
Console.ReadLine();
}
}
public static class Sorts
{
public static ArrayList BubbleSort(ArrayList numbers)
{
bool sorted = true;
for (int i = 0; i < numbers.Count; i++)
{
for (int j = 1; j < numbers.Count; j++)
{
if ((int)numbers[j - 1] > (int)numbers[j])
{
int tmp = (int)numbers[j - 1];
numbers[j - 1] = numbers[j];
numbers[j] = tmp;
sorted = false;
}
}
if (sorted)
{
return numbers;
}
}
return numbers;
}
public static ArrayList MergeSort(ArrayList numbers, int switchLimit = 3)
{
//if I use this if - everything works
if (numbers.Count <= 1)
{
// return numbers;
}
//the moment I use this condition - it throws SystemInvalidOperationException in function Merge in the line of a "for"-loop
if (numbers.Count <=switchLimit)
{
return Sorts.BubbleSort(numbers);
}
ArrayList ret = new ArrayList();
int middle = numbers.Count / 2;
ArrayList L = numbers.GetRange(0, middle);
ArrayList R = numbers.GetRange(middle, numbers.Count - middle);
L = MergeSort(L);
R = MergeSort(R);
return Merge(L, R);
}
private static ArrayList Merge(ArrayList L, ArrayList R)
{
ArrayList ret = new ArrayList();
int l = 0;
int r = 0;
for (int i = 0; i < L.Count + R.Count; i++)
{
if (l == L.Count)
{
ret.Add(R[r++]);
}
else if (r == R.Count)
{
ret.Add(L[l++]);
}
else if ((int)L[l] < (int)R[r])
{
ret.Add(L[l++]);
}
else
{
ret.Add(R[r++]);
}
}
return ret;
}
//---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
public static void PrintArray(ArrayList arr, string txt = "", int sleep = 0)
{
Console.WriteLine("{1}({0}): ", arr.Count, txt);
for (int i = 0; i < arr.Count; i++)
{
Console.WriteLine(arr[i].ToString().PadLeft(10));
}
Console.WriteLine();
System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(sleep);
}
}
There is a problem with my Sorts.MergeSort function.
When I use it normally (take a look at the first if-condition in a function - all works perfectly.
But the moment when I want it to switch to bubblesort with smaller input (the second if-condition in the function) it throws me an SystemInvalidOperationException. I have no idea where is the problem.
Do you see it?
Thanks. :)
Remark: bubblesort itself works - so there shouldn't be a problem in that sort...

The problem is with your use of GetRange:
This method does not create copies of the elements. The new ArrayList is only a view window into the source ArrayList. However, all subsequent changes to the source ArrayList must be done through this view window ArrayList. If changes are made directly to the source ArrayList, the view window ArrayList is invalidated and any operations on it will return an InvalidOperationException.
You're creating two views onto the original ArrayList and trying to work with both of them - but when one view modifies the underlying list, the other view is effectively invalidated.
If you change the code to create copies of the sublists - or if you work directly with the original list within specified bounds - then I believe it'll work fine.
(As noted in comments, I'd also strongly recommend that you use generic collections.)
Here's a short but complete program which demonstrates the problem you're running into:
using System;
using System.Collections;
class Program
{
static void Main()
{
ArrayList list = new ArrayList();
list.Add("a");
list.Add("b");
ArrayList view1 = list.GetRange(0, 1);
ArrayList view2 = list.GetRange(1, 1);
view1[0] = "c";
Console.WriteLine(view2[0]); // Throws an exception
}
}

on this line R = MergeSort(R); you alter the range of numbers represented by L. This invalidates L. Sorry I have to go so can't explain any further now.