combining number and dateformating in one funcrtion - C# Discussion Boards

Ian Uy28-Apr-08 16:22

28-Apr-08 16:22

Good Day,

Say I have an array of numbers. For instance:
int[] myNumber = {1,11,21,42,32};

and I would like to randomly remove 2 items from that array. It is easy to implement, but mine was sort-of inefficient (I'm working with large arrays). So I'm asking for some advice.

Thanks. Big Grin | :-D

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Re: Randomly Removing an Item from an Array

Paul Conrad28-Apr-08 16:24

Paul Conrad

28-Apr-08 16:24

Ian Uy wrote:
like to randomly remove 2 items from that array. It is easy to implement, but mine was sort-of inefficient (I'm working with large arrays).

Let's see the code, how can where is it being inefficient?

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Re: Randomly Removing an Item from an Array

Ian Uy28-Apr-08 20:15

Ian Uy

28-Apr-08 20:15

Well, what I do is first I get the size of the array, say 10, then randomly generate a number from 1 to 10, then check if the number generated has already been removed, if not, generate again, if yes, remove it. So it's like a guessing game.

Re: Randomly Removing an Item from an Array

PIEBALDconsult29-Apr-08 6:15

PIEBALDconsult

29-Apr-08 6:15

If you can't change it to a List as Christian suggests, then instead of generating a new value, simply increment (or decrement) until you find a non-removed value (be sure to wrap if you hit the end of the array).

Re: Randomly Removing an Item from an Array

Christian Graus28-Apr-08 18:12

Christian Graus

28-Apr-08 18:12

There's no efficient way to remove from the middle of an array, use a list instead.

Christian Graus

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Programming to DataTables VS. Programming to type safe objects using generic interfaces?

Steve Holdorf28-Apr-08 11:17

Steve Holdorf

28-Apr-08 11:17

I have been doing C# (WinForms) development for the past 5 years. I have just started an ASP project. From my experience I have always programmed to type safe objects that implemented the needed interfaces to allow generics. The current projects is using DataTables as the primary object for storing all information and does not use type safe objects that implement generic interfaces. Today, I had a discussion with the programmer who wrote the system that uses only tables and was unable to give him a list of the true benefits that type safe objects using generics provide. Can anyone list what advantage using the type safe objects have over using table objects handling everything.

Thanks,

Steve

Re: Programming to DataTables VS. Programming to type safe objects using generic interfaces?

Pete O'Hanlon28-Apr-08 11:52

Pete O'Hanlon

28-Apr-08 11:52

Well - the first one is typesafety. You know - letting the compiler catch errors rather than having to rely on runtime. Secondly, DataTables - yukk..... if you change a fieldname in your database then you are going to have one hell of a job catching all of the instances of the DataTable throughout the application. Also - it's not interoperable with none .NET systems without a great deal of work, and it's a hell of a big structure (serialization is a bitch with this).

There - is that enough to get on with?

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combining number and dateformating in one funcrtion

stephan_00728-Apr-08 10:02

stephan_007

28-Apr-08 10:02

hy everyone!

i was wondering if it is possible to combine number formating and dateformating in one function.

formating a number is done e.g. by using {#,##0.0000} and date formating is done by using {0:dd/MM/yyyy}.

i was wondering if it is possible to separate the numberformating and the dateformating. well, if there are these two, then you might try to get the difference by checking for the ":". But that's no "clean" way to do this.

public static string ConvertFormats (string input, string formatstring)
{
  if (formatstring.Contains(":")
  {
    // date
  }
  else
  {
    // number
  }
  return input; //formated in the if else above
}

So what if this function should format stringlength as well? then this won't work anymore.

Anyone a better idea?

thanks!

Stephan.

Re: combining number and dateformating in one funcrtion

Gareth H28-Apr-08 10:35

Gareth H

28-Apr-08 10:35

stephan_007,

Why would you want to do this? there are already methods in place to do this.

Regards,
Gareth.

Re: combining number and dateformating in one funcrtion

PIEBALDconsult28-Apr-08 10:43

PIEBALDconsult

28-Apr-08 10:43

Why take a string as input? Even an object would be better:

if ( input is int ) ((int) input).ToString ( formatstring ) ;
else if ( input is System.DateTime ) ((System.DateTime) input).ToString ( formatstring ) ;

But would calling the appropriate ToString directly help?

someint.ToString ( "#,##0.0000" ) ;
 
somedate.ToString ( "dd/MM/yyyy" ) ;

(Of course, I also have to recommend that you use an ISO 8601 date format like "yyyy-MM-dd".)

Re: combining number and dateformating in one funcrtion

stephan_00728-Apr-08 10:54

stephan_007

28-Apr-08 10:54

i parse from a textfile which contains infos like
|value|{#,##0.0000}
|date|{0:dd/MM/yyyy}

when parsing the tokens (a token is e.g. |value|) is replaced by it's value and formated by the formatstring behind. so i parse the string after the token and format the string with this formatstring.

so the input is always a string.
i do also provide the culture info which corresponds to the string format so it is formated correctly.

<br />
input.ToString(FormatString, new CultureInfo(LocalString));<br />

Re: combining number and dateformating in one funcrtion

PIEBALDconsult28-Apr-08 13:54

PIEBALDconsult

28-Apr-08 13:54

Sounds like a bad design; go slap the person responsible.

Why doesn't the system that writes the file perform the format?

System.Timers.Timer

geekfromindia28-Apr-08 9:11

geekfromindia

28-Apr-08 9:11

Hi frnds,

I am working with System.Timers.Timer

I have configured timer to trigger every 60 mins, its working fine on my machine but getting triggered every 7 minutes on server.

Is it an issue with the Timer class? I dont see any reason for this to happen...

Keep DotNetting!!

GeekFromIndia

Re: System.Timers.Timer

som.nitk28-Apr-08 9:14

som.nitk

28-Apr-08 9:14

Could you please post some code?
that would help to resolve your issue..

Re: System.Timers.Timer

PIEBALDconsult28-Apr-08 9:20

PIEBALDconsult

28-Apr-08 9:20

With a long cycle like that I'd just use a Scheduled Task.

Re: System.Timers.Timer

Zoltan Balazs28-Apr-08 9:41

Zoltan Balazs

28-Apr-08 9:41

60 minutes or 60 seconds?

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Re: System.Timers.Timer

Anthony Mushrow28-Apr-08 14:13

Anthony Mushrow

28-Apr-08 14:13

I wouldn't set up a timer with an interval as large as 60 minutes, or any minutes really. If you need to use a timer, set it up to fire every second, and count the time yourself. There's a couple of ways you can check how much time has passed, and here they are:

int counter = 0;

void Timer()
{
   if(counter == (60*60)) {// 60*60 being 1 hour
      its been a hour, omg!
      counter = 0;
   }
}

And i prefer this way, since you don't have to increase a counter yourself

DateTime now = DateTime.Now;
DateTime start = DateTime.Now;
	
void Timer()
{			
   TimeSpan huh = start-now;

   if(huh.Hours >= 1) {
      Its been an hour, again!
      start = DateTime.Now;
   }
}

I'm sure there are other things you can do instead of using a timer, but if you have to...

My current favourite word is: Bacon!

-SK Genius

Re: System.Timers.Timer

geekfromindia28-Apr-08 16:21

geekfromindia

28-Apr-08 16:21

Thanks guys,

Sorry i was busy whole day to check your replies. Dont really know what was the problem but after reinstalling the msi it started working correctly. Unsure | :~

SK,
Your suggestion looks interesting but i dont see any reason to do this.
Why would i like to trigger an event every second when it to take a rest for an hour??

Thanks.

Keep DotNetting!!

GeekFromIndia

Windows forms and animated gift progress

Saamir28-Apr-08 8:34

Saamir

28-Apr-08 8:34

Hi guys,
Please help! I am trying to show an animated gif on button click. in my click event I have a while loop and until the while loop condition is met I would like to show an animated gif to inform the user that the application is searching...
I have tried different methods, threads, a new form with the picturebox and image and all of them show the image but the transition/rotation of the image is not smooth. Please help on how to go about this.

Thank you in advance

Sameer

Re: Windows forms and animated gift progress

Christian Graus28-Apr-08 11:20

Christian Graus

28-Apr-08 11:20

Sounds like your search needs to go into another thread, so that the gif code can run smoothly.