CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#objectcharts
tmwoods
tmwoods

Reputation: 2413

Using a string in place of an object when accessing it

First off I'm sure that I am using the wrong terminology here but I will fix it if someone comments on it. Please be gentle.

So I have multiple charts on a page and I am performing virtually identical actions on each. For demonstrative purposes lets call my charts something like: chart1, chart2, ..., chartn where n is somewhere in the vicinity of 20. What I would like to do is drop this in a for loop and perform all the work in one smaller chunk of code, especially if I have to tweak it later.

So my question is whether or not I can vary the n part representing the object (terminology?) so I can get this done more efficiently.

i.e.:

for(int i = 0; i < 20; i++)
{
    String chartName = "chart" + i;
    chartName.Series.Clear();
}

I have a feeling you can't do this with a string so I was looking into doing a foreach but I don't know how to do this with charts.

Thanks a lot!

Upvotes: 1

Views: 96

Answers (2)

Daniel A.A. Pelsmaeker
Daniel A.A. Pelsmaeker

Reputation: 50336

You should put the charts in a list. For example, this makes a list of Chart objects (or whatever your chart type is):

List<Chart> charts = new List<Chart>();

Then you can add charts:

charts.Add(new Chart());

And use them:

for (int i = 0; i < charts.Count; i++)
{
    charts[i].Series.Clear();
}

Of course, you can make the charts variable a field in your class.

You can directly initialize a list (or array, or dictionary1) like this:

List<Chart> charts = new List<Charts>()
{
    new Chart(),
    new Chart(),
    existingChart1,
    existingChart2
};

Or, if you create a new array of objects using that syntax...

Chart[] arrayOfCharts = new []
{
    new Chart(),
    new Chart(),
    existingChart1,
    existingChart2
};

...then you can add multiple objects at once using AddRange:

charts.AddRange(arrayOfCharts);

1) You can use this so-called collection initializer syntax on any object that has a public Add method.

Upvotes: 4

Zeddy
Zeddy

Reputation: 2089

Can you access your chart from a list/array/collection of charts like this?

for (int i = 0; i <= 19; i++) {
  String chartName = "chart" + i;
  Charts(chartName).Series.Clear();
}

or maybe 

for (int i = 0; i <= 19; i++) {
  String chartName = "chart" + i;
  Charts(i).Series.Clear();
}

Upvotes: 0

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