Increase readability in this try-catch? - c#

I was wondering if there is a more aesthetic/easier to read way to write the following:
for (int i = 0; i < 100; i++)
{
// If m.GetString(i) throws an exception, continue.
// Otherwise, do stuff.
try
{
string s = m.GetString(i);
continue;
}
catch (InvalidCastException)
{
}
// do stuff with the message that you know is not a string.
}
Here's what m looks like:
msg[0] = 10
msg[1] = "string"
msg[2] = 2.224574743
// Etc.
// Assume it's different every time.
So therefore when I do m.GetString(0) in this example, it throws an exception, as msg[0] is a uint and not a string. This is what I use to get the type, since m does not contain a GetType and I cannot edit m.
m is an instance of class Message in a library that I cannot edit.
However, despite this working just fine, it feels inefficient (and certainly not reader-friendly) to intentionally create exceptions, even if it's in a try-catch, in order to get the type.
Is there a better way or am I stuck with this?
Edit: Alright, I researched the Message class some more (which I should have done to begin with, my apologies). It is an IEnumerable<object>

Now that I know that m is an IEnumerable<object>, I think this is probably your best bet:
foreach (string s in m.OfType<string>())
{
// Process s, which can't be null.
}
Nice and simple and it appears to handle all the logic that you want, i.e. it will process only the items in the sequence that are strings, and it will ignore all objects of other types.
However as Servy points out, this will not handle nulls in the list because null does not have any type at all.
[My previous answer before I knew the type of m]
I think you can take one of three approaches to this:
(1) Add a bool TryGetString(int index, out string) method to whatever type m is in your example and then do
if (m.TryGetString(i, out s))
// Process s (need to check for null!)
(2) Add a bool IsString(int index) method and call that before calling GetString().
if (m.IsString(i))
{
s = m.GetString(i);
// Process s (need to check for null!)
(3) Alternatively, you could expose the item via something like GetObject(int index) and then do something like Iiya suggested:
string s = m.GetObject(i) as string;
if (s != null)
// Process s
I think (1) or (3) would be best, although there might be a much better solution that we could suggest if we had more information about m.

If you want to process only strings in a non-strongly typed sequence of data, use next code:
for (int i = 0; i < 100; i++)
{
string s = m[i] as string;
if(s != null)
{
}
}

Related

How do you return an array in a procedure back to the main procedure in C#?

static string readfileName(string[] name)
{
using (StreamReader file = new StreamReader("StudentMarks.txt"))
{
int counter = 0;
string ln;
while ((ln = file.ReadLine()) != null)
{
if (ln.Length > 4)
{
name[counter] = ln;
counter++;
}
}
file.Close();
return name;
}
}
This is the procedure I'm currently trying to return the array name[50] but the compile time error I can't fix states
"Error CS0029 Cannot implicitly convert type 'string[]' to 'string' "
You don't need to. Your main method passed the array to this method, this method filled it. It doesn't need to hand it back because the object pointed to by your 'name` variable is the same object as pointed to by the original variable in the main method; your main method already has all the array data:
static void Main(){
var x = new string[10];
MyMethod(x);
Console.Write(x[0]); //prints "Hello"
}
static void MyMethod(string[] y){
y[0] = "Hello";
}
In this demo code above we start out with an array of size 10 that is referred to by a variable x. In memory it looks like:
x --refers to--> arraydata
When you call MyMethod and pass x in, c# will create another reference y that points to the same data:
x --refers to--> arraydata <--refers to-- y
Now because both references point to the same area of memory anything that you do with y, will also affect what x sees. You put a string (like I did with Hello) in slot 0, both x and y see it. When MyMethod finishes, the reference y is thrown away, but x survives and sees all the changes you made when working with y
The only thing you can't do is point y itself to another different array object somewhere else in memory. That won't change x. You can't do this:
static void MyMethod(string[] y){
y = new string[20];
}
If you do this your useful reference of x and y pointing to the same area of memory:
x ---> array10 <--- y
Will change to:
x ---> array10 y ---> array20
And then the whole array20 and the y reference will be thrown away when MyMethod finishes.
The same rule applies if you call a method that supplies you an array:
static void MyMethod(string[] y){
y = File.ReadAllLines("some path"); //this also points y away to a new array made by ReadAllLines
}
It doesn't matter how or who makes the new array. Just remember that you can fiddle with the contents of an object pointed to by y all you like and the changes will be seen by x, but you can't change out the entire object pointed to by y and hope x will see it
in that case you WOULD have to pass it back when you're done:
static string[] MyMethod(string[] y){
y = new ...
return y;
}
And the main method would have to capture the change:
Main(...){
string[] x = new string[10];
string[] result = MyMethod(x);
}
Now, while I'm giving this mini lesson of "pass by reference" and "pass by value" (which should have been called "pass by original reference" and "pass by copy of reference") it would be useful to note that there is a way to change things so MyMethod can swap y out for a whole new object and x will see the change too.
We don't really use it, ever; there is rarely any need to. Just about the only time it's used is in things like int.Parse. I'm telling you for completeness if education so that if you encounter it you understand it but you should always prefer a "change the contents but not the whole object" or a "if you make a new object pass it back" approach
By marking the y argument with the ref keyword, c# wont make a copy of the reference when calling the method, it will use the original reference and temporarily allow you to call it y:
static void MyMethod(ref string[] y){
y = new array[20];
}
Our diagram:
x ---> array10data
Temporarily becomes:
x a.k.a y ---> array10data
So if you point y to a new array, x experiences the change too, because they're the same reference; y is no longer a different reference to the same data
x a.k.a y ---> array20data
Like I say, don't use it- we always seek to avoid it for various reasons.
Now, I said at the start "you don't need to" - by that, and for the reasons above, I meant you don't need to return anything from this method
Your method receives the array it shall fill (from the file) as a parameter; it doesn't make a new array anywhere so there isn't any need to return the array when done. It will just put any line longer than 4 chars into an array slot. It could then finish without returning anything and the method that called this method will see the changes it made in the array. This is just like my code, where MyMethod changes slot 0 of the array, MyMethod was declared as void so it didn't need to make a return statement , and my Main method god could still see the Hello that I put in the array. In the same vein, your Main method will see all those lines from the file if you make your ReadFileName method (which should perhaps be called FillArray) because it fills the array called name
The most useful thing your method could return is actually an integer saying how many lines were read; the array passed in is of a fixed size. You can't resize it because that entails making a new array which won't work for all those reasons I talked about above. If you were to make a new array and return it there wouldn't be any point in passing an array in.
There are thus several ways we could improve this code but to my mind they come down to two:
don't pass an array in; let this method make a new array and return it. The new array passed back can be exactly sized to fit
keep with the "pass an array in" idea and return an integer of how many lines were actually read instead
For the second idea (which is the simplest to implement) you have to change the return type to int:
static int ReadFileName(string[] name)
And you have to return that variable you use to track which slot to put the next thing in, counter. Counter is always 1 greater than the number of things you've stored so:
return counter - 1;
Your calling method can now look like:
string[] fileData = new string[10000]; //needs to be big enough to hold the whole file!
int numberOfLinesRead = ReadFileName(fileData);
Can you see now why ReadFileName is a bad name for the method? Calling it FillArrayFromFile would be better. This last line of code doesn't read like a book, it doesn't make sense from a natural language perspective. Why would something that looks like it reads a file name (if that even makes sense) take an array and return an int - calling it ReadFileName makes it sound more like it searches an array for a filename and returns the slot number it was found in. Here ends the "name your methods appropriately 101"
So the other idea was to have the Read method make its own array and return it. While we are at it, let's call it ReadFileNamed, and have it take a file path in so it's not hard coded to reading just that one file. And we will have it return an array
static string[] ReadFileNamed(string filepath)
^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
the return type the argument passed in
Make it so the first thing it does is declare an array big enough to hold the file (there are still problems with this idea, but this is programming 101; I'll let them go. Can't fix everything using stuff you haven't been taught yet)
Put this somewhere sensible:
string lines = new string[10000];
And change all your occurrences of "name" to be "lines" instead - again we name our variables we'll just like we name our methods sensibly
Change the line that reads the fixed filename to use the variable name we pass in..
using (StreamReader file = new StreamReader(filepath))
At the end of the method, the only thing left to do is size the array accurately before we return it. For a 49 line file, counter will be 50 so let's make an array that is 49 big and then fill it using a loop (I doubt you've been shown Array.Copy)
string[] toReturn = new string[counter-1];
for(int x = 0; x < toReturn.Length; x++)
toReturn[x] = lines[x];
return toReturn;
And now call it like this:
string[] fileLines = ReadFileNamed("student marks.txt");
If you're looking to return name[50] and you know that will be populated, why not go with:
static string readfileName(string[] name)
{
using (StreamReader file = new StreamReader("StudentMarks.txt"))
{
int counter = 0;
string ln;
while ((ln = file.ReadLine()) != null)
{
if (ln.Length > 4)
{
name[counter] = ln;
counter++;
}
}
file.Close();
return name[50];
}
}
You're getting the error because your method signature indicates that you're going to return a string, but you're defining name as a string[] in the argument. If you simply select a single index of your array in the return statement, you'll only return a string.
You have defined your method to return a string, yet the code inside is returning name, which is a string[]. If you want it to return a string[], then change the signature to specify that:
static string[] ReadFileName(string[] name)
However, since your method is only populating the array that was passed in, it's not really necessary to return the array, since the caller already has a reference to the array we're modifying (they passed it to our method in the first place).
There is a potential problem here, though
We're expecting the caller to pass us an array of the appropriate length to hold all the valid lines from the file, yet that number is unknown until we read the file. We could return an array of the size they specified with either empty indexes at the end if it was too big, or incomplete data if it was too small, but instead we should probably just return them a new array, and not require them to pass one to us.
Note that it's easier to use a List<string> instead of a string[], since lists don't require any knowledge of their size at instantiation (they can grow dynamically). Also, we no longer need a counter variable (since we're using the Add method of the list to add new items), and we can remove the file.Close() call since the using block will call that automatically (one of the cool things about them):
static string[] ReadFileName()
{
List<string> validLines = new List<string>();
using (StreamReader file = new StreamReader("StudentMarks.txt"))
{
string ln;
while ((ln = file.ReadLine()) != null)
{
if (ln.Length > 4)
{
validLines.Add(ln);
}
}
}
return validLines.ToArray();
}
And we can simplify the code even more if we use some static methods of the System.IO.File class:
static string[] ReadFileName()
{
return File.ReadLines("StudentMarks.txt").Where(line => line.Length > 4).ToArray();
}
We could also make the method a little more robust by allowing the caller to specify the file name as well as the minimum line length requirement:
static string[] ReadFileName(string fileName, int minLineLength)
{
return File.ReadLines(fileName)
.Where(line => line.Length >= minLineLength).ToArray();
}
Well, you are trying to do several thing in one method:
Read "StudentMarks.txt" file
Put top lines into name existing array (what if you have too few lines in the file?)
return 50th (magic number!) item
If you insist on such implementation:
using System.Linq;
...
static string readfileName(string[] name)
{
var data = File
.ReadLines("StudentMarks.txt")
.Where(line => line.Length > 4)
.Take(name.Length);
int counter = 0;
foreach (item in data)
if (counter < name.Length)
name[counter++] = item;
return name.Length > 50 ? name[50] : "";
}
However, I suggest doing all things separately:
// Reading file lines, materialize them into string[] name
string[] name = File
.ReadLines("StudentMarks.txt")
.Where(line => line.Length > 4)
// .Take(51) // uncomment, if you want at most 51 items
.ToArray();
...
// 50th item of string[] name if any
string item50 = name.Length > 50 ? name[50] : "";
Edit: Splitting single record (name and score) into different collections (name[] and score[]?) often is a bad idea;
the criterium itself (line.Length > 4) is dubious as well (what if we have Lee - 3 letter name - with 187 score?).
Let's implement Finite State Machine with 2 states (when we read name or score) and read (name, score) pairs:
var data = File
.ReadLines("StudentMarks.txt")
.Select(line => line.Trim())
.Where(line => !string.IsNullOrEmpty(line));
List<(string name, int score)> namesAndScores = new List<(string name, int score)>();
string currentName = null;
foreach (string item in data) {
if (null == currentName)
currentName = item;
else {
namesAndScores.Add((currentName, int.Parse(item)));
currentName = null;
}
}
Now it's easy to deal with namesAndScores:
// 25th student and his/her score:
if (namesAndScores.Count > 25)
Console.Write($"{namesAndScores[25].name} achieve {namesAndScores[25].score}");

Is there a way to create a Pass-By-Reference list of managed-type variables?

edit; Based on responses, I may have been unclear in my final goal. I've updated the last section.
Situation
I have a number of variables which I need to perform the same operation on. In this case, they are strings, and can at the point we reach this code have the value null, "", "Blank", or they could already have an assigned other value that I want to keep.
if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(MyVar1) || "Blank".Equals(MyVar1))
MyVar1 = null;
if(String.IsNullOrEmpty(MyVar2) || "Blank".Equals(MyVar2))
MyVar2 = null;
...
if(String.IsNullOrEmpty(MyVar10) || "Blank".Equals(MyVar10))
MyVar10 = null;
Being a programmer that wants to keep my code clean and this block drives me mad, I'm looking for a way to create a list of these variables, and perform this same if statement + null assignment on each.
For an example, here's what I'd like to do:
MyVar1 = "Blank";
DreamDataStructure varList = new DreamDataStructure() { MyVar1, MyVar2, ..., MyVar10 };
foreach(ref string MyVar in varList)
{
if(String.IsNullOrEmpty(MyVar) || "Blank".Equals(MyVar))
MyVar = null;
}
Console.WriteLine(MyVar1); //Should now be null
What Doesn't Work
1) Because my variables are strings, I can't do something like this.
var myListOfVariables = new[] { &MyVar1, &MyVar2, ..., &MyVar10 };
If I could, I'd be able to foreach over them as expected. Because string is a managed type though, it cannot be passed by reference like this.
2) Similarly, if I just made a List<string> of the variables, they would be passed by value and wouldn't help my case.
3) These variables can't be wrapped in an outer object type, as they need to be used as strings in a large number of places in a legacy application. Assume that it would be too large an effort to change how they're used in every location.
Question
Is there a way to iterate over string (or other managed type) variables in a pass-by-reference way that will allow me to put the entire operation inside of a loop and reduce the duplication of code that's happening here?
The goal here is that I can use the original variables later on in my code with the updated values. MyVar1, etc, are referenced later on already by legacy code which expects them to be null or have an actual value.
If I understand your question correctly, I don't think what you want to do is possible. Please see this question: Interesting "params of ref" feature, any workarounds?
The only thing I can suggest (which I know doesn't answer your question) is creating a method to avoid duplication of your conditional logic:
void Convert(ref string text)
{
if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(text) || "Blank".Equals(text))
{
text = null;
}
}
You could create a function instead of passing references, which would also be more readable.
string Validate(string inputString)
{
return string.IsNullOrEmpty(inputString) || "Blank".Equals(inputString) ? null : inputString;
}
<...>
MyVar1 = Validate(MyVar1);
Update:
Now I get what you're trying to do. You have a bunch of variables, and you want to perform some sort of bulk operation on them without changing anything else. Putting them in a class isn't an option.
In that case you're really stuck operating on them one at a time. There are ways to shorten it, but you're pretty much stuck with the repetition.
I'd
create a string SanitizeString(string input) function
type x = SanitizeString(x); once for each variable
copy and paste the variable names to replace x.
It's lame, but that's about all there is.
Perhaps this would be a better approach. It ensures that the values are always sanitized. Otherwise you can't easily tell whether the values have been sanitized or not:
public class MyValues
{
private string _value1;
private string _value2;
private string _value3;
public string Value1
{
get { return _value1; }
set { _value1 = Sanitize(value); }
}
// repeat for other values
private string Sanitize(string input) =>
string.IsNullOrEmpty(input) || string.Equals("Blank", input) ? null : input;
}
That's one option. Another is to sanitize the inputs earlier. But ideally we want to ensure that a given class is always in a valid state. We wouldn't want to have an instance of a class whether the values may or may not be valid. It's better to ensure that they are always valid.
ref doesn't really factor into it. We don't need to use it often, if ever. With a value type or string we can just return a new value from a function.
If we're passing a reference type and we want to make changes to it (like setting its properties, adding items to a list) then we're already passing a reference and we don't need to specify ref.
I'd try to write methods first without using ref and only use it if you need to. You probably never will because you'll succeed at whatever you're trying to do without using ref.
Your comment mentioned that this is a legacy app and it's preferable not to modify the existing class. That leaves one more option - reflection. Not my favorite, but when you say "legacy app" I feel your pain. In that case you could do this:
public static class StringSanitizer
{
private static Dictionary<Type, IEnumerable<PropertyInfo>> _stringProperties = new Dictionary<Type, IEnumerable<PropertyInfo>>();
public static void SanitizeStringProperties<T>(T input) where T : class
{
if (!_stringProperties.ContainsKey(typeof(T)))
{
_stringProperties.Add(typeof(T), GetStringProperties(typeof(T)));
}
foreach (var property in _stringProperties[typeof(T)])
{
property.SetValue(input, Sanitize((string)property.GetValue(input)));
}
}
private static string Sanitize(string input)
{
return string.IsNullOrEmpty(input) || string.Equals("Blank", input) ? null : input;
}
private static IEnumerable<PropertyInfo> GetStringProperties(Type type)
{
return type.GetProperties(BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.Public)
.Where(property => property.PropertyType == typeof(string) && property.CanRead && property.CanWrite);
}
}
This will take an object, find its string properties, and sanitize them. It will store the string properties in a dictionary by type so that once it has discovered the string properties for a given type it won't have to do it again.
StringSanitizer.SanitizeStringProperties(someObject);
you can simply use a string[] and get the changes back to the caller method like this.
public Main()
{
var myVar1 = "Blank";
var myVar2 = "";
string myVar3 = null;
var myVar4 = "";
string[] dreamDataStructure = new string[] { myVar1, myVar2, myVar3, myVar4 };
}
private void ProcessStrings(string[] list)
{
for(int i = 0; i < list.Length; i++)
{
if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(list[i]) || "Blank".Equals(list[i]))
list[i] = null;
}
}

With Roslyn, find calling method from string literal parameter

I'm trying to use Roslyn to replace some old, slow code in a utility that searches our source code for string literals which are not wrapped in an X() function call (things wrapped in X() will be be translated).
I was able to use the Syntax Tree to get the string literals quite easily, and identified most of the places where they were wrapped in X(). What I was doing: given an LiteralExpressionSyntax object, I found that this gave me the function call and I could match it with a regular expression.
s.Parent.Parent.Parent.ToFullString()
I quickly ran into a problem when the string literal was split between two lines. At that point I realized my means of checking if it was in an X() call was poor, because I'd have to keep adding .Parent to the chain. While I could write something to crawl backwards up the tree, that didn't seem like it was the right way (and probably wouldn't perform very well).
I've been trying to find a way, given a string literal syntax node, to determine if that is an argument in a method call. I haven't been able to find a decent way of going from the Syntax Tree to the Semantic Model to find what I'm looking for. I'm not even sure if that's the right approach, or if I'm missing something obvious.
I was able to use SymbolFinder.FindSymbolAtPositionAsync to get to the symbol, but that suffers from the same issue - I can't just pass the position of the string literal argument, I have to pass the position of the (correct) parent and I'm back where I started.
I'm hoping to avoid having to loop through the syntax tree multiple times, because that slows things way down. I can parse 553 files in about 1 second, but as soon as I try to loop to account for these multi-line situations, I'm up to about 12-13 seconds.
Just in case I've lost you in this novella (sorry), here's what I'm hoping to figure out: for a string literal being passed as an argument to a method, is there an easy way to determine what that method is?
Here is some example code - I've replaced calls to my X() function with Convert.ToString just to simulate the code I'm searching (I had to add references to one of our DLLs, so I switched calls to Convert.ToString() so I could just reference mscorlib for this example.
static void TestAttempt()
{
string source = #"
Imports System
Namespace Exceptions
Public NotInheritable Class ExampleException
Inherits Validation
Public Sub New()
Convert.ToString(""Ignore me 1"")
Console.WriteLine(""Report me"")
Console.WriteLine(Convert.ToString(""Ignore me 2""))
MyBase.New(Convert.ToString(""Ignore me 3, "" & _
""Because I'm already translated.""))
End Sub
End Class
End Namespace";
var tree = VisualBasicSyntaxTree.ParseText(source);
var syntaxRoot = tree.GetRoot();
int i = 0;
foreach (var s in syntaxRoot.DescendantNodes().OfType<LiteralExpressionSyntax>())
{
// things to skip:
if (s == null) { continue; }
if (s.Kind() != SyntaxKind.StringLiteralExpression) { continue; }
var Mscorlib = PortableExecutableReference.CreateFromFile(#"C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\mscorlib.dll");
var compilation = VisualBasicCompilation.Create("MyCompilation", syntaxTrees: new[] { tree }, references: new[] { Mscorlib });
var model = compilation.GetSemanticModel(tree);
var symbol = SymbolFinder.FindSymbolAtPositionAsync(model, s.Parent.Parent.Parent.Span.Start, new AdhocWorkspace()).Result;
if (symbol.ToDisplayString().EndsWith("Convert")) { continue; }
Console.WriteLine(symbol);
Console.WriteLine($" Reported: {s.ToString()}");
i++;
}
Console.WriteLine();
Console.WriteLine($"Total: {i}");
}
With a warning that I have never used Roslyn before, and I normally code in VB.NET, I think I hacked together something that seems to do what you want (using LINQPad and lots of Dump() calls helped to find out what was going on).
void TestAttempt()
{
string source = #"
Imports System
Namespace Exceptions
Public NotInheritable Class ExampleException
Inherits Validation
Public Sub New()
X(""Ignore me 1"")
Console.WriteLine(""Report me"")
Console.WriteLine(X(""Ignore me 2""))
MyBase.New(X(""Ignore me 3, "" & _
""Because I'm already translated.""))
End Sub
End Class
End Namespace";
var tree = VisualBasicSyntaxTree.ParseText(source);
var syntaxRoot = tree.GetRoot();
int i = 0, notWrapped = 0;
foreach (var s in syntaxRoot.DescendantNodes().OfType<LiteralExpressionSyntax>())
{
// things to skip:
if (s == null) { continue; }
if (s.Kind() != SyntaxKind.StringLiteralExpression) { continue; }
if (!IsWrappedInCallToX(s))
{
Console.WriteLine($" Reported: {s.ToString()}");
notWrapped++;
}
i++;
}
Console.WriteLine();
Console.WriteLine($"Total: {i}, Not Wrapped In X: {notWrapped}");
}
bool IsWrappedInCallToX(SyntaxNode node)
{
var invocation = node as InvocationExpressionSyntax;
if (invocation != null)
{
var exp = invocation.Expression as IdentifierNameSyntax;
if (exp != null && exp.ToString() == "X")
{
return true;
}
}
if (node.Parent != null)
{
return IsWrappedInCallToX(node.Parent);
}
return false;
}
This results in:
Reported: "Report me"
Total: 5, Not Wrapped In X: 1
The IsWrappedInCallToX function just recurses up the tree looking for an InvocationExpressionSyntax for the X function. I know you said "While I could write something to crawl backwards up the tree, that didn't seem like it was the right way (and probably wouldn't perform very well)", but to me it seems like this is the right way - if the performance is horrible on your code base, maybe not!
Again, I know nothing about Roslyn (this just sounded interesting), so this is very likely a terrible solution! :-)

Using LINQ in a string array to improve efficient C#

I have a equation string and when I split it with a my pattern I get the folowing string array.
string[] equationList = {"code1","+","code2","-","code3"};
Then from this I create a list which only contains the codes.
List<string> codeList = {"code1","code2","code3"};
Then existing code loop through the codeList and retrieve the value of each code and replaces the value in the equationList with the below code.
foreach (var code in codeList ){
var codeVal = GetCodeValue(code);
for (var i = 0; i < equationList.Length; i++){
if (!equationList[i].Equals(code,StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase)) continue;
equationList[i] = codeVal;
break;
}
}
I am trying to improve the efficiency and I believe I can get rid of the for loop within the foreach by using linq.
My question is would it be any better if I do in terms of speeding up the process?
If yes then can you please help with the linq statement?
Before jumping to LINQ... which doesn't solve any problems you've described, let's look at the logic you have here.
We split a string with a 'pattern'. How?
We then create a new list of codes. How?
We then loop through those codes and decode them. How?
But since we forgot to keep track of where those code came from, we now loop through the equationList (which is an array, not a List<T>) to substitute the results.
Seems a little convoluted to me.
Maybe a simpler solution would be:
Take in a string, and return IEnumerable<string> of words (similar to what you do now).
Take in a IEnumerable<string> of words, and return a IEnumerable<?> of values.
That is to say with this second step iterate over the strings, and simply return the value you want to return - rather than trying to extract certain values out, parsing them, and then inserting them back into a collection.
//Ideally we return something more specific eg, IEnumerable<Tokens>
public IEnumerable<string> ParseEquation(IEnumerable<string> words)
{
foreach (var word in words)
{
if (IsOperator(word)) yield return ToOperator(word);
else if (IsCode(word)) yield return ToCode(word);
else ...;
}
}
This is quite similar to the LINQ Select Statement... if one insisted I would suggest writing something like so:
var tokens = equationList.Select(ToToken);
...
public Token ToToken(string word)
{
if (IsOperator(word)) return ToOperator(word);
else if (IsCode(word)) return ToCode(word);
else ...;
}
If GetCodeValue(code) doesn't already, I suggest it probably could use some sort of caching/dictionary in its implementation - though the specifics dictate this.
The benefits of this approach is that it is flexible (we can easily add more processing steps), simple to follow (we put in these values and get these as a result, no mutating state) and easy to write. It also breaks the problem down into nice little chunks that solve their own task, which will help immensely when trying to refactor, or find niggly bugs/performance issues.
If your array is always alternating codex then operator this LINQ should do what you want:
string[] equationList = { "code1", "+", "code2", "-", "code3" };
var processedList = equationList.Select((s,j) => (j % 2 == 1) ? s :GetCodeValue(s)).ToArray();
You will need to check if it is faster
I think the fastest solution will be this:
var codeCache = new Dictionary<string, string>();
for (var i = equationList.Length - 1; i >= 0; --i)
{
var item = equationList[i];
if (! < item is valid >) // you know this because you created the codeList
continue;
string codeVal;
if (!codeCache.TryGetValue(item, out codeVal))
{
codeVal = GetCodeValue(item);
codeCache.Add(item, codeVal);
}
equationList[i] = codeVal;
}
You don't need a codeList. If every code is unique you can remove the codeCace.

Add TextBox.Text to a list using a for loop

I am trying to take the values in the textboxes, named sequentially from 0-9, and add that to a List using a for loop. I am having problems with the syntax or something.
here is what I have now.
for (int i = 0; i <= amt.Count(); i++)
{
amt[i] = int.Parse(amtBox[i].Text);
}
The error is that amtBox doesnt exist in the current context.
My problem is within the loop where i have amtBox[i].Text. I have tried this several ways and VS always throws an error. I have tried "amtBox" + i and that compiles but then causes an error when I try to do something with it and says "data is of wrong type".
I am new to C# and come from PHP so maybe that is why I think this approach will work. PHP doesnt care about data types where C# really does. I have done this exact thing in PHP many times without any issue.
Any suggestions on another way to do this are appreciated as I am probably coming at this all wrong.
Thanks
One solution would be to declare an array and assign amtBox'es to the individual indexes in the array and then you can iterate on that array.
var amtBoxes = new TextBox[] { amtBox0, amtBox1, .... };
for (int i = 0; i <= amt.Count(); i++)
{
amt[i] = int.Parse(amtBoxes[i].Text);
}
If you end up needing to iterate on your TextBox controls in other places I would consider making the array an instance member of your object.
I suppose that your textbox are named "amtBox" + a number.
(The Name property is "amtBox1" as an example)
In this case you could use
Control[] t = Controls.Find("amtBox" + i, false);
for a code like this
for (int i = 0; i <= amt.Count(); i++)
{
Control[] t = Controls.Find("amtBox" + i, false);
if(t != null && t.Length > 0)
{
amt[i] = int.Parse(t[0].Text);
}
}
My understanding is that you have text boxes named amtBox1, amtBox2, etc., and what you are trying to do is sequence through them. As you point out, this is very easy in PHP. It is possible to do what you're suggesting using reflection, but that is expensive and, in any event, there's probably a better way to do what you're looking for.
You could put all of your amount boxes into an array, and then what you have would work:
var amtBoxes = new[] {
amtBox1,
amtBox2,
amtBox3
}

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