C# Class array?

Question

The following seems to be a class array?

Chemical.ChemicalName[IndexNumber] 

It seems that there are several other fields associated with Chemical, such as Cost, Quantity, SupplierName (Chemical.Cost etc).

I was wondering what this type of variable is called? A class array? I've been searching online about arrays and can't seem to find any documentation on this.

And secondly, how do I declare such a variable?

Answer 1

Let's parse Chemical.ChemicalName[IndexNumber]:

IndexNumber is probably some value of one of integer types - let guess int IndexNumber. Other options could be enum or any type as you can use indexer with any arguments.

[IndexNumber] is indexing something. Since there is no Static Indexers? in C# it means ChemicalName can't be class name of static class like following

 namespace Chemical { 
    static class ChemicalName{}
 }

so it means that ChemicalName is either property or field of Chemical.

Now for Chemical there are more options

• it could be static class with ChemicalName as static property:

  static class Chemical{
     public static string[] ChemicalName = new[] {"Food", "Poison"};
  }
  

• it could be local variable of some type that has ChemicalName as instance property:

  class ChemicalType{
     public string[] ChemicalName = new[] {"Food", "Poison"};
  }
  
  ...
  void MyMethod()
  {
     // implicitly typed, same as `ChemicalType Chemical`
     var Chemical = new ChemicalType();
     int IndexNumber = 1;
  
     Console.WriteLine(Chemical.ChemicalName[IndexNumber]);
  }
  

• it could be field or property of your class (with any accessibility as to get Checmical.ChemicalName syntax to work for property it need to be used inside a method of your class)

  class MyClass
  {
     // one of any combination:
     // private field
     ChemicalType Chemical = new ChemicalType();
  
     // or protected automatic property
     protected ChemicalType Chemical {get;set;}
  
     // or public property
     ChemicalType  _chemical;
     public ChemicalType Chemical {get {return _chemical;}}
     ...
  }
  

Finally let's see what ChemicalName could be: the only requirement is to allow indexer by some type. including int. This gives very broad set of types as many of built in types support indexing.

• array is most common one string[] ChemicalName
• just string - somewhat strange given name of variable, but possible - string ChemicalName. When indexing will give single char result
• List<string>
• dictionary, this option allows broader range of indexing - i.e. by strings Dictionary<string,string> ChemicalName.
• custom type implementing similar to public string this[int i] (or any other return type).

Answer 2

Let me consider this statement from the question Chemical.ChemicalName[IndexNumber], We can consider Chemical as a class or as an object of some other class. If it is a class means the ChemicalName will be a static.

Then comes the ChemicalName definitely it will be a collection(List/Array or something like that) or even an object of a class which having an indexer.

Case 1: consider Chemical is class and ChemicalName is a List of string So the Definition will be :

public class Chemical
{
   public static List<string> ChemicalNames = new List<string>(){"name1","name 2"};
}

So that you can access a single name like the following:

string someChemicalName=Chemical.ChemicalNames[0]; // will be name1

Case 2: consider Chemical is an object of a class and ChemicalName is a List of string So the Definition will be :

public class Chemicals
{
   public List<string> ChemicalNames;
}

Then you can access create the Chemical by using the following code:

Chemicals Chemical= new Chemicals();
Chemical.ChemicalNames=new List<string>(){"name1","name 2"};

Here also you can workout your statement like this

string someChemicalName=Chemical.ChemicalNames[0]; // will be name1

Answer 3

Assuming it's a property, not an array , so you cannot access using an index,

public class Chemical
{
    // Field
    public string ChemicalName;
    ...etc
}

if chemical is an array , then you can declare like this,

Chemical[] Chemicals = new Chemical[200];

Then you can access the particular element using the index,

Chemicals[IndexNumber].ChemicalName 

EDIT

If you want to have ChemicalName as a array inside the class,

public class Chemical{
 public ChemicalName[] ChemicalNames = new ChemicalName[5];
]

you can access like this,

Chemical[] Chemicals = new Chemical[200];
c[index].ChemicalNames[index];

Answer 4

Variable would look something like that

public class Chemical{
 public ChemicalName[] ChemicalNames = new ChemicalName[5];

  ...
}

So you can invoke it like that

Chemical c = new Chemical();
c.ChemicalNames[index];

OR, you can also declare the Array as static so you wont need an intance of the class to get the array e.g.

public class Chemical{
 public static ChemicalName[] ChemicalNames = new ChemicalName[5];

  ...
}

to call a static, simply use class.variable/method name

Chemical.ChemicalNames[index];

Answer 5

It is a class property that implements an indexer. Usually this is an array, but it can be something else as long as it implements this[int index].

You can declare one by declaring it as a class property. For example,

class Book
{
    public Book(int numPages)
    {
        Pages = new Page[numPages];
    }
    public Page[] Pages {get;}
}

You can then instantiate an instance and access a page.

Book myBook = new Book(100);
myBook.Pages[50]=new Page("Hi, welcome to Page 50");
Console.Write(myBook.Pages[50].GetText());