C# Two Dimensional Array and Array.Find - Cannot Convert Error

Question

I have a two dimensional array declared. It has two columns - filename and batch. I initialize it empty.

string[,] a_Reports = new string[,] { { "", "" } };

I have some code that resizes it and populates it. Everything is a string value. When I go to look up an element in the array like so:

int value1 = Array.Find<string>(a_Reports, element=>element.Equals(newFileName));

I get the error:

CS1503  Argument 1: cannot convert from 'string[*,*]' to 'string[]'

I've tried it every which way and nothing works. Please help me!!! I've spent hours on it already.

I think error message is clear. Don't use Array.Find on string[,] — Eser
– Eser, Commented Jun 18, 2016 at 21:51
Find<string><string> was a good idea but it didn't work. I thought there would be an easier way than traversing the array and I thought .Find would be it but I guess the syntax is not obvious. — Missy
– Missy, Commented Jun 19, 2016 at 1:09

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 12:16:07Z

1

Array.Find is only for one-dimensional arrays. (MSDN)

Produce a similar extension method, like in my example on rextester.

Or use a jagged array instead of a two-dimensional one and a combination of foreach and find, like:

string[][] jagged = ...
Array.ForEach(jagged, array=>Array.Find(array, x=>x=="" ));

CommunityBot

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answered Jun 19, 2016 at 22:33

andrei.ciprian

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1 Comment

Thanks so much. I ended up making an array scan function.