Turning a read in list into a 2D array for manipulation

Question

I have a file I have read into a C# console app that contains information such as this:

Player;Team;POS;HR;RBI;AVG  
Abreu, J;CWS;1B;30;101;0.29  
Altuve, J;HOU;2B;15;66;0.313  
Andrus, E;TEX;SS;7;62;0.258  

I have to now sort all 143 items on this list by the RBI column, descending. I'm fairly certain I have to go about this with a 2D array, since this class has not yet gotten into Lists or DataTables or anything of that sort.

Since the professor of this class likes us to use methods whenever possible, I thus far have this:

public static string[] openList()
{
    string[] playerFile = File.ReadAllLines("players.txt");

    return playerFile;
}

public static string[] splitList()
{
    foreach (string playerInfo in openList())
    {
        string[] playerStuff = playerInfo.Split(';');

        foreach (string player in playerStuff)
        {
            Console.Write(player + '\t');
            //string individualPlayer = player + '\t';
        }

        Console.WriteLine();
    }
}

I know printing it at this point is NOT what needs to be done, that will just give me a complete list, in the original order.

I suppose my question is this: Since I now have this list imported and split, how do I go about setting it up as a 2D array that I can then manipulate? I know how to work with them if I'm hardcoding them in. I guess I'm just missing something obvious here. A pointer in the right direction would be nice.

Thanks.

Answer 1

Try this

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.IO;

namespace ConsoleApplication1
{
    class Program
    {
        static List<Player> players = new List<Player>();
        const string FILENAME = @"c:\temp\test.txt";
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(FILENAME);
            string inputLine = "";
            int lineCount = 0;
            while ((inputLine = reader.ReadLine()) != null)
            {
                lineCount++;
                inputLine = inputLine.Trim();
                if (inputLine.Length > 0)
                {
                    if (lineCount > 1)
                    {
                        string[] playerStuff = inputLine.Split(';');
                        players.Add(new Player(playerStuff));
                    }

                }
            }
            reader.Close();
        }

    }
    public class Player
    {
        public string name { get; set;}
        public string team { get; set;}
        public string position { get; set;}
        public int hr { get; set;}
        public int rbi { get; set;}
        public double avg { get; set;}

        public Player(string[] line)
        {
            this.name = line[0];
            this.team = line[1];
            this.position = line[2];
            this.hr = int.Parse(line[3]);
            this.rbi = int.Parse(line[4]);
            this.avg = double.Parse(line[5]);
        }
    }
}

Answer 2

As a direct answer to your question, you can create the 2D array like this:

string[] entries = openList();

string[,] array_2d = new string[entries.Length, 6];

for(int i = 0 ; i < entries.Length ; i++)
{
    string[] parts = entries[i].Split(';');

    for (int j = 0; j < 6; j++)
    {
        array_2d[i, j] = parts[j];
    }
}

//Use array_2d here

However, a better way to go about this is to create a class that represents an entry in the file. For example:

public class Entry
{
    public string Player {get;set;}
    public string Team {get;set;}
    public string POS {get;set;}
    public int HR {get;set;}
    public int RBI {get;set;}
    public double AVG {get;set;}
}

And then you can create a method (e.g. CreateEntry) that takes in a line and parses it and returns an Entry object.

The CreateEntry method would look like something like this:

public Entry CreateEntry(string line)
{
    string[] parts = line.Split();

    return new Entry()
    {
        Player = parts[0],
        Team = parts[1],
        POS = parts[2],
        HR = Convert.ToInt32(parts[3]),
        RBI = Convert.ToInt32(parts[4]),
        AVG = Convert.ToDouble(parts[5])
    };
}

Then you would be able to create a List<Entry> that contains the list of entries form the file and then you can work with them as you like. For example:

var entries =
    openList()
    .Select(x => CreateEntry(x))
    .ToList();

var sorted_entries =
    entries
    .OrderByDescending(x => x.RBI)
    .ToList();