How to search through an array of objects using only variables that user provided input for

Question

Straight away I'm gonna say - I'm a serious beginner and this is for my learning project. I am trying to make a method where an admin can search for accounts meeting specific criteria. First, he is prompted for input for all the parameters and then I want to use only the ones that have some input to search for the accounts meeting all criteria.

Here is a part where it searches through an array if all parameters have some input:

for (int index = 0; index < objAccount.Length; index++)
        {
            if (objAccount[index].accNum == accNum && objAccount[index].accLogin == accLogin && objAccount[index].accName == accName && objAccount[index].accBalance == accBalance && objAccount[index].accType == accType && objAccount[index].accStatus == accStatus)
            {
                Console.WriteLine($"{objAccount[index].accNum,15}" + $"{objAccount[index].accLogin,15}" + $"{objAccount[index].accName,20}" + $"{objAccount[index].accBalance,15:C}" + $"{objAccount[index].accType,15}" + $"{objAccount[index].accStatus,15}");
            }
        }

With my limited knowledge, one solution I came up with was to do if/else ifs for all parameters but since I would have to do that for all combinations it would be a lot of code that seems unnecessary. There surely must be a more efficient way to do this that I'm just not seeing.

Could anyone help me with this one?

Not perhaps a beginner thing but I’d use a Linq expression tree for this. (Can’t give example code as AFK) — stuartd
– stuartd, Commented Jan 1, 2022 at 20:17
Docs - learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/csharp/programming-guide/… — stuartd
– stuartd, Commented Jan 1, 2022 at 20:19

Charles · Accepted Answer · 2022-01-01 20:20:14Z

2

I would do it like this:
(You have to adjust the first part of each line (null check) according to the dataTypes)

var filtered = objAccount.Where( x => 
    (accNum == null || x.accNum == accNum) && 
    (accLogin == null || x.accLogin == accLogin) && 
    (String.IsNullOrEmpty(accName) || x.accName == accName) && 
    (accBalance == null || x.accBalance == accBalance) && 
    (accType == null || x.accType == accType) && 
    (accStatus == null || x.accStatus == accStatus)
);

foreach (var item in filtered)
{
    Console.WriteLine ...
}

answered Jan 1, 2022 at 20:20

Charles

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Serge · Accepted Answer · 2022-01-01 20:56:25Z

0

you can still use foreach to escape double iteration

foreach (var item in objAccount)
{
 if (
  (accNum == null || item.accNum == accNum) &&
  (accLogin == null || item.accLogin == accLogin) &&
  (string.IsNullOrEmpty(accName) || item.accName == accName) &&
  (accBalance == null || item.accBalance == accBalance) &&
  (accType == null || item.accType == accType) &&
  (accStatus == null || item.accStatus == accStatus)
 )
    Console.WriteLine($" {item.accNum,15} {item.accLogin,15} {item.accName,20} { item.accBalance,15:C}{ item.accType,15}{ item.accStatus,15}");
}

edited Jan 1, 2022 at 20:56

answered Jan 1, 2022 at 20:50

Serge

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