C# Convert a string to multidimensional int array

Question

I made a tile level system that uses a multidimensinal array, for example:

new int[,]{
            {0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0,},
            {0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0,},
            {0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 2, 0, 0, 0, 0,},
            {0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 2, 2, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0,},
            {0, 0, 0, 0, 2, 0, 2, 0, 2, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0,},
            {0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0,},
            {0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0,},
            {1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1,},

Every specific number represents a block(tile). This is just in code. I want to code a system that can load a level(an multidimensinal int array) That array needs to be converted from a string. How do I do that?

    public static int[,] getLvl(string lvlName = "")
    {
        string readed = "";
        using (StreamReader read = new StreamReader(path))
        {
            readed = read.ReadToEnd();
        }
        return null; //What to put here?!?!?!
    }

EDIT: I do not have yet a format for the file to read. So you can be flexible in that.

The only posted code (StreamReader) is outdated. Not useful. — Henk Holterman
– Henk Holterman, Commented Aug 29, 2013 at 18:04
I see those game tiles questions far too often. So I'll only drop a few words, research that; Tile class. Xml. — Pierre-Luc Pineault
– Pierre-Luc Pineault, Commented Aug 29, 2013 at 18:04

UpQuark · Accepted Answer · 2013-08-29 19:03:34Z

I don't think you really need to or should bother trying to serialize it into XML or some other format, since your data storage is so simple.

One easy way is to just store your array in a text file as comma separated values. So one level might have:

0,0,0,1
0,1,1,0
0,1,1,3
3,3,4,1

The String.Split() method is really useful for parsing something simple like this. It allows you to split a string into an array of substrings based on a certain delimiting character.

Step by step:

First you can use var RowArray = MyString.Split('\n') (the newline character) to split your string into an array of rows. This leaves you with the array:

[0]: "0,0,0,1"
[1]: "0,1,1,0"
[2]: "0,1,1,3"
[3]: "3,3,4,1"

You can sort of see what Split() does here and why that's useful for your case. You can in turn run split each row on ',' leaving with you an array of arrays, which you can very easily convert to exactly the 2D array you're looking for.

The one pitfall here is somewhere, depending on your design needs, one invariant might have to be that in the file all rows will be of the same length. Or if you can't guarantee that, you'll have to write some code so that when turning the below text into an array from an array of rows, you make the width equal to the longest row and fill in blanks with 0s or some other method.

0,0,0,1,6,4
0,1,1,0
0,1,1,3,2,6,3,7,1
3,3,4,1,2,4

Blau · Accepted Answer · 2013-08-30 08:39:00Z

1

The shortest method is using linq, for this format:

 0,0,0,0,0
 1,0,1,0,1
 ....

You can use this sentence:

 int[][] Data =   File.ReadAllLines( path )
                      .Select( s => s.Trim())
                      .Where( s => !string.IsNullOrempty(s))
                      .Select( s => s.Split( ',' )
                                     .Select( token => int.Parse( token ) )
                                     .ToArray( ) )
                      .ToArray( );

 var DataToOneDim = Data.SelectMany( a => a).ToArray();
 var Result = new int[Data[0].Length, Data.Length];
 Buffer.BlockCopy( DataToOneDim, 0, Result, 0, DataToOneDim.Length );

edited Aug 30, 2013 at 8:39

answered Aug 29, 2013 at 22:23

Blau

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3 Comments

joppiesaus Over a year ago

your code is pretty awsome... only it is not the type of array I was looking for. I was looking for: int[,]

Blau Over a year ago

yes.. is a jagged array, but there is not an easy way to get multidimensional arrays from linq, and jagged arrays are equivalent...

Blau Over a year ago

@joppiesaus I have added code to convert it :) though I think is the same working with jagged arrays or multidimensional

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 10:25:17Z

0

I believe there are a few other posts regarding this, but you can use either XML and parse through each possible dimension or serialize everything at once using the SoapFormatter class. Below is a link to a similar question with some examples:

Convert Multi-Dimensional Array to String and Back

edited May 23, 2017 at 10:25

CommunityBot

11 silver badge

answered Aug 29, 2013 at 18:19

JNYRanger

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Comments

Bassam Alugili · Accepted Answer · 2013-08-29 18:38:42Z

I make it for you fast you can make it better do not Forget the vote :_)

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Collections.ObjectModel;
using System.Linq;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
using System.Text;
using System.Text.RegularExpressions;
using System.Threading.Tasks;

namespace ConsoleApplication1
{
internal class Program
{
private static void Main(string[] args)
{

    var array =
        "{0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0,} , {1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1,}";

    string input = array;
    string pattern = @"{|}";
    var index = 0;
    var results = new int[100,100];
    foreach (var result in Regex.Split(input, pattern))
    {
        var sp = result.Split(',');
        if (sp.Length <4)
        continue;

        for (int i = 0; i < sp.Count(); i++)
        {
            if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(sp[i]))
             results[index,i] = Convert.ToInt32(sp[i]);
        }

        index++;
    }
   }
  }
 }

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