How to populate a 2d array via user input?

Question

I'm trying to create a 5,4 array in C# where each cell is made up of user data. The code I have below works sometimes, but not consistently. I can input data into cell [4,5] or [3,4] for example. However, sometimes when I run the code It does not accept the data and displays an empty cell. and Any tips?

        decimal[,] departments = new decimal[4, 5];

        //int count = 0;
        Console.WriteLine("If you would like to run the program, type enter");
        string exit = Console.ReadLine();       
        while (exit != "yes")
        {
            Console.WriteLine("What is the department number that you would like to enter sales for? Enter 9 to exit");
            int departmentNo = int.Parse(Console.ReadLine());
            Console.WriteLine("What day would you like to enter sales for?");
            int input = int.Parse(Console.ReadLine());

            Console.WriteLine("Enter sales");
            departments[departmentNo, input] = decimal.Parse(Console.ReadLine());
            Console.WriteLine("If you are finished, enter yes");
            exit = Console.ReadLine();

        }

Example output

Arrays are zero indexed to take that into account. Also I would personally just create a class to store the data using generics to make it easier. — AliK
– AliK, Commented Nov 6, 2018 at 4:28

ProgrammingLlama · Accepted Answer · 2018-11-06 04:34:47Z

You can use .GetUpperBound(dimension) to obtain the maximum bound (in the example below, it will return 1 for each dimension) for a specific dimension. Once you've got that, you just need to go through each position (I'm assuming you just need to fill data at each position).

Here's a sample:

int[,] items = new int[2, 2];
int width = items.GetUpperBound(0) + 1;
int height = items.GetUpperBound(1) + 1;
for (int x = 0; x < width; ++x)
{
    for (int y = 0; y < height; ++y)
    {
        string input;
        int inputValue;
        do
        {
            Console.WriteLine($"Please input value for ({x},{y}): ");
        }
        while (!int.TryParse(input = Console.ReadLine(), out inputValue));
        items[x, y] = inputValue;
    }
}

Or if you do need the user to be able to specify where the sales value goes, you can update your code to add some validation checks:

while (exit != "yes")
{
    Console.WriteLine("What is the department number that you would like to enter sales for? Enter 9 to exit");
    int departmentNo = int.Parse(Console.ReadLine());
    if (departmentNo > departments.GetUpperBound(0) || departmentNo < 0)
    {
        Console.WriteLine("Please enter a valid department number.");
        continue;
    }
    Console.WriteLine("What day would you like to enter sales for?");
    int input = int.Parse(Console.ReadLine());
    if (input > departments.GetUpperBound(1) || input < 0)
    {
        Console.WriteLine("Please enter a valid input.");
        continue;
    }

    Console.WriteLine("Enter sales");
    if (!decimal.TryParse(Console.ReadLine(), out decimal value))
    {
        Console.WriteLine("Please enter a valid sales figure.");
        continue;
    }
    departments[departmentNo, input] = value;
    Console.WriteLine("If you are finished, enter yes");
    exit = Console.ReadLine();
}

You probably want to change it to be similar to my example above so that you don't have to restart the entire loop again if the input is bad.

Ha Bom · Accepted Answer · 2018-11-06 04:32:50Z

0

Because the departments has a fixed length of [4,5], it means the departmentNo can only be in range 0-3 and the input can only be in range 0-4. In addition, decimal keyword indicates a 128-bit data type, it's mean the value for a cell is in range ±1.0 x 10^28 to ±7.9228 x 10^28, which means 28-29 significant digits approximately. You should make some if conditions to make sure input values are in available range.

answered Nov 6, 2018 at 4:32

Ha Bom

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