Randomly Select 1 image out of 3

Question

Hello there i'm trying to make a Card War Game and what i want to do is select 1 image out of 3 images in total. The images are stored in the resource folder all numbers in same folder like All 2's all 3's so i can maybe Pick a card randomly if number = 2 so you don't always get 2 of hearts

I was thinking about this but the code will be very long.

    Dim RC As Integer

        if randomNumber = 2 then
            RC = ran.Next(1, 4)
            If RC = 1 Then
                PictureBox1.Image = My.Resources.schoppen2
            Else If RC = 2 Then
                PictureBox1.Image = My.Resources.harten2
            Else If RC = 3 Then
                PictureBox1.Image = My.Resources.ruiten2
            Else
                PictureBox1.Image = My.Resources.klaveren2
            End If
        End If
    If randomNumber = 3 Then
        RC = ran.Next(1, 4)
        If RC = 1 Then
            PictureBox1.Image = My.Resources.schoppen3
        ElseIf RC = 2 Then
            PictureBox1.Image = My.Resources.harten3
        ElseIf RC = 3 Then
            PictureBox1.Image = My.Resources.ruiten3
        Else
            PictureBox1.Image = My.Resources.klaveren3
        End If
    End If

    If randomNumber = 4 Then
        RC = ran.Next(1, 4)
        If RC = 1 Then
            PictureBox1.Image = My.Resources.schoppen4
        ElseIf RC = 2 Then
            PictureBox1.Image = My.Resources.harten4
        ElseIf RC = 3 Then
            PictureBox1.Image = My.Resources.ruiten4
        Else
            PictureBox1.Image = My.Resources.klaveren4
        End If
    End If
    If randomNumber = 5 Then
        RC = ran.Next(1, 4)
        If RC = 1 Then
            PictureBox1.Image = My.Resources.schoppen5
        ElseIf RC = 2 Then
            PictureBox1.Image = My.Resources.harten5
        ElseIf RC = 3 Then
            PictureBox1.Image = My.Resources.ruiten5
        Else
            PictureBox1.Image = My.Resources.klaveren5
        End If
    End If
    If randomNumber = 6 Then
        RC = ran.Next(1, 4)
        If RC = 1 Then
            PictureBox1.Image = My.Resources.schoppen6
        ElseIf RC = 2 Then
            PictureBox1.Image = My.Resources.harten6
        ElseIf RC = 3 Then
            PictureBox1.Image = My.Resources.ruiten6
        Else
            PictureBox1.Image = My.Resources.klaveren6
        End If
    End If
    If randomNumber = 7 Then
        RC = ran.Next(1, 4)
        If RC = 1 Then
            PictureBox1.Image = My.Resources.schoppen7
        ElseIf RC = 2 Then
            PictureBox1.Image = My.Resources.harten7
        ElseIf RC = 3 Then
            PictureBox1.Image = My.Resources.ruiten7
        Else
            PictureBox1.Image = My.Resources.klaveren7
        End If
    End If
    If randomNumber = 8 Then
        RC = ran.Next(1, 4)
        If RC = 1 Then
            PictureBox1.Image = My.Resources.schoppen8
        ElseIf RC = 2 Then
            PictureBox1.Image = My.Resources.harten8
        ElseIf RC = 3 Then
            PictureBox1.Image = My.Resources.ruiten8
        Else
            PictureBox1.Image = My.Resources.klaveren8
        End If
    End If

    If randomNumber = 9 Then
        RC = ran.Next(1, 4)
        If RC = 1 Then
            PictureBox1.Image = My.Resources.schoppen9
        ElseIf RC = 2 Then
            PictureBox1.Image = My.Resources.harten9
        ElseIf RC = 3 Then
            PictureBox1.Image = My.Resources.ruiten9
        Else
            PictureBox1.Image = My.Resources.klaveren9
        End If
    End If
    If randomNumber = 10 Then
        RC = ran.Next(1, 4)
        If RC = 1 Then
            PictureBox1.Image = My.Resources.schoppen10
        ElseIf RC = 2 Then
            PictureBox1.Image = My.Resources.harten10
        ElseIf RC = 3 Then
            PictureBox1.Image = My.Resources.ruiten10
        Else
            PictureBox1.Image = My.Resources.klaveren10
        End If
    End If

    If randomNumber = 11 Then
        RC = ran.Next(1, 4)
        If RC = 1 Then
            PictureBox1.Image = My.Resources.schoppen11
        ElseIf RC = 2 Then
            PictureBox1.Image = My.Resources.harten11
        ElseIf RC = 3 Then
            PictureBox1.Image = My.Resources.ruiten11
        Else
            PictureBox1.Image = My.Resources.klaveren11
        End If
    End If
    If randomNumber = 12 Then
        RC = ran.Next(1, 4)
        If RC = 1 Then
            PictureBox1.Image = My.Resources.schoppen12
        ElseIf RC = 2 Then
            PictureBox1.Image = My.Resources.harten12
        ElseIf RC = 3 Then
            PictureBox1.Image = My.Resources.ruiten12
        Else
            PictureBox1.Image = My.Resources.klaveren12
        End If
    End If
    If randomNumber = 13 Then
        RC = ran.Next(1, 4)
        If RC = 1 Then
            PictureBox1.Image = My.Resources.schoppen13
        ElseIf RC = 2 Then
            PictureBox1.Image = My.Resources.harten13
        ElseIf RC = 3 Then
            PictureBox1.Image = My.Resources.ruiten13
        Else
            PictureBox1.Image = My.Resources.klaveren13
        End If
    End If

but when i have to repeat this code all the way to 13 then it will be to long. i saw on the internet that you can Grab a random file i thought maybe you can also do that with this

Thanks in Advance!

Answer 1

Your code does Work fine tough. But its very long so what you can do is put your code inside a Private sub like this.

Private sub ChooseCard()

'Paste your code here

end sub

so you can just add this to your code to excute your script instead of pasting your code everywhere where you want it to be.

ChooseCard()

this will run your script inside the Private sub ChooseCard

Answer 2

You should make a storage lookup table for the cards. I will give you an example (the names in the example are german, but should be understandable). As a lookup I will use a Dictionary object that itself holds a collection of dictionaries. That enables the lookup using two different keys. One for the card color and one for the card value. I use Enums to refer to the specific card values to make the code more readable afterwards. When using a variable of type Enum you can either assign an integer value or the name of the entry.

First, the complete code:

Public Class Form1
'Define the enums, example is for a 52 card game (Poker)
Private Enum CardColors
    Herz = 1
    Karo = 2
    Pik = 3
    Kreuz = 4
End Enum
Private Enum CardValues
    Ass = 1
    Zwei = 2
    Drei = 3
    Vier = 4
    Fuenf = 5
    Sechs = 6
    Sieben = 7
    Acht = 8
    Neun = 9
    Zehn = 10
    Bube = 11
    Dame = 12
    Koenig = 13
End Enum

Private Sub MakeCards()
    'Test function for creating a set of test cards, not escpecially relevant to this example
    IO.Directory.CreateDirectory("C:\test\cards")
    For i = 1 To 4
        For y = 1 To 13
            Dim bmp As New Bitmap(100, 100)
            Using g As Graphics = Graphics.FromImage(bmp)
                g.DrawString(CType(i, CardColors).ToString & " " & CType(y, CardValues).ToString, New Font("Arial", 8), Brushes.Black, New Point(10, 10))
            End Using
            bmp.Save("C:\test\cards\" & CType(i, CardColors).ToString & "_" & y.ToString & ".bmp")
            bmp.Dispose()
        Next
    Next
End Sub

'This dictionary holds the cards
Private Cards As Dictionary(Of CardColors, Dictionary(Of CardValues, Bitmap))
Private Sub InitializeCards()
    'The first dictionary contains 4 entries, assigned to the four colors
    'The nested dictionaries hold the card values for each color
    'We use the ResourceManager.GetObject() function to get the images from the resources
    'You of course have to name them with a continuing index for this to work
    'In this example: Herz_1, Herz_2, ..., Herz_13, Karo_1, Karo_2, ...
    Cards = New Dictionary(Of CardColors, Dictionary(Of CardValues, Bitmap))
    For CardColor = 1 To 4
        Dim ThisCards As New Dictionary(Of CardValues, Bitmap)
        Dim ThisColor As CardColors = CardColor 'This works because the enum is integer based
        Dim ThisColorName As String = ThisColor.ToString
        For Values = 1 To 13
            ThisCards(Values) = My.Resources.ResourceManager.GetObject(ThisColorName & "_" & Values.ToString)
        Next
        Cards(CardColor) = ThisCards
    Next
End Sub

Private Sub Form1_Load(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
    'Load the cards into the lookup dictionary on startup
    InitializeCards()
End Sub

Private Sub Button1_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
    'Show a specific picture in a picturebox
    PictureBox1.Image = Cards(CardColors.Herz)(CardValues.Acht)
End Sub

Private Sub Button2_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Button2.Click
    'Select a random card from the range of available cards and show it
    Dim rnd As New Random
    PictureBox1.Image = Cards(rnd.Next(1, 4))(rnd.Next(1, 13))
End Sub
End Class

So you have to call InitializeCards only once. This loads the cards into the dictionaries. The Initialize function iterates all colors and values and selects the corresponding card from the ressources collection by name and adds it to the respective dictionary.

Afterwards you can very easily select the image of a specific card or a random card.