Sort by DateTime multidimentional array in C#

Aditya Patil

I attached the Source Code of the my C# Console Application, Its half completed, I am remaining with the sorting part of below assignment, so let me help in how to sort array which contain DateTime data.

Expense Manager

Note : Use the collections (whi)

1. Add Income

2. Add Expense

3. Account Summary

Add Income

Take following As Input

1. Predefined Category Selection :

2. Title

3. Amount

4. Date

Add Expense

Take following As Input

1. Predefined Category Selection

2. Title

3. Amount

4. Date

Account Summary

show output : Category | Title | Amount | Date

1. Expense

1. Sort by date

2. Sort by name

3. Group by category

2. Income

1. Sort by date

2. Sort by name

3. Group by category

3. Total

show output

Total Income :

Total Expense :

I want help in above red Marked part of the assignment. that is sorting part, I used arrary, so I have to sort array, I found help for sort the list of DateTime, but Can I convert array to List and sort, please help me regarding Sorting part, attached the Source Code, Hope by that code will get proper exact reply.

13 Replies

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Vulpes12y ago
Accepted answer
OK, I've incorporated the Person class I mentioned earlier (you can of course call it what you want if Person is not suitable) and filled in the code to sort the array by date, name or category as well as print out the results.

As you're only reading in a 2 x 2 array (rather than 5 x 4) for testing purposes, I've included a where clause in the sorting routine to ensure that only non-null elements are sorted. You'll get an exception otherwise.

The program still needs some work to make it robust - there's no 'quit' option for example.

Also, I'd avoid using goto (which is not considered 'nice' in C# programming circles) when there are other ways to easily achieve the same thing (while or do loops).

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;

namespace Expense_Manager
{

class Person
{
public string Category {get; set;}
public string Title {get; set;}
public int Amount {get; set;}
public DateTime Date {get; set;}

public override string ToString()
{
return String.Format("{0}\t{1}\t{2}\t{3}\n\n", Category, Title, Amount, Date.ToShortDateString());
}
}

class Program
{

static void Main(string[] args)
{
int i,l;
int j,m;

Person[,] iPersons = new Person[5, 4];
Person[,] ePersons = new Person[5, 4];

start:

Console.WriteLine("1. Add Income");
Console.WriteLine("2. Add Expense");
Console.WriteLine("3. Account Summary");
Console.WriteLine();
int input = int.Parse(Console.ReadLine());

switch(input)
{
case 1:
Console.WriteLine("Income");
Console.WriteLine("Predefined Category:");

for (i = 0; i < 2;i++)
{
for (j = 0; j < 2;j++)
{
Console.WriteLine("\n Predefined Category Selection: (Only Category ID.)");
Person ip = new Person();
ip.Category = Console.ReadLine();
Console.WriteLine("\n Title:");
ip.Title = Console.ReadLine();
Console.WriteLine("\n Amount:");
ip.Amount = int.Parse(Console.ReadLine());
Console.WriteLine("\n Date:");
ip.Date = DateTime.Parse(Console.ReadLine());
iPersons[i, j] = ip;
}

}

goto start;

case 2:
Console.WriteLine("Expense");

for (i = 0; i < 2; i++)
{
for (j = 0; j < 2; j++)
{
Console.WriteLine("\n Predefined Category Selection:");
Person ep = new Person();
ep.Category = Console.ReadLine();
Console.WriteLine("\n Title:");
ep.Title = Console.ReadLine();
Console.WriteLine("\n Amount:");
ep.Amount = int.Parse(Console.ReadLine());
Console.WriteLine("\n Date:");
ep.Date = DateTime.Parse(Console.ReadLine());
ePersons[i, j] = ep;
}

}

goto start;

case 3:
substart:
Console.WriteLine("1. Income Account Summary");
Console.WriteLine("2. Expense Account Summary");

int input3 = int.Parse(Console.ReadLine());
switch(input3)
{
case 1:
Console.WriteLine("Category|Title|Amount|Date");
for (i = 0; i < 2; i++)
{
for (j = 0; j < 2; j++)
{
Console.WriteLine(iPersons[i, j]);
}
}

Console.WriteLine("1. Sort by Date");
Console.WriteLine("2. Sort by Name");
Console.WriteLine("3. Group by Category");
int input31 = int.Parse(Console.ReadLine());
Person[] iPersonsSorted = null;

switch(input31)
{
case 1:
iPersonsSorted = iPersons.Cast().Where(p => p != null).OrderBy(p => p.Date).ToArray();
break;

case 2:
iPersonsSorted = iPersons.Cast().Where(p => p != null).OrderBy(p => p.Title).ToArray();
break;
case 3:
iPersonsSorted = iPersons.Cast().Where(p => p != null).OrderBy(p => p.Category).ToArray();
break;

default:
Console.WriteLine("Wrong Input");
break;
}

if (iPersonsSorted != null) foreach(Person ip in iPersonsSorted) Console.WriteLine(ip);
goto substart;

case 2:
Console.WriteLine("Category|Title|Amount|Date");

for (i = 0; i < 2; i++)
{
for (j = 0; j < 2; j++)
{
Console.WriteLine(ePersons[i, j]);
}
}

Console.WriteLine("1. Sort by Date");
Console.WriteLine("2. Sort by Name");
Console.WriteLine("3. Group by Category");
int input32 = int.Parse(Console.ReadLine());
Person[] ePersonsSorted = null;

switch(input32)
{
case 1:
ePersonsSorted = ePersons.Cast().Where(p => p != null).OrderBy(p => p.Date).ToArray();
break;

case 2:
ePersonsSorted = ePersons.Cast().Where(p => p != null).OrderBy(p => p.Title).ToArray();
break;
case 3:
ePersonsSorted = ePersons.Cast().Where(p => p != null).OrderBy(p => p.Category).ToArray();
break;

default:
Console.WriteLine("Wrong Input");
break;
}

if (ePersonsSorted != null) foreach(Person ep in ePersonsSorted) Console.WriteLine(ep);

goto substart;

default:
Console.WriteLine("Wrong Input");
break;

}

Console.WriteLine();
break;

default:
Console.WriteLine("Wrong Input");
break;

}
Console.ReadKey();
}
}
}
Aditya Patil12y ago
Thank you very much.
Now I understood complete what have to exactly for sorting and all. :)
Aditya Patil12y ago
What to write in Console.WriteLine();
What to print, Problem is in Printing, can you give me code for my problem from starting of sort to print it, it will be beneficial, as its urgent i have to complete it today itself, as soon as I can complete the part of Sorting under Expense I will learn and at same way complete the Sorting under Income part, So telling you all, please give me code for the Red Marked content, and also specify the code what to print, main problem is under Print.
Vulpes12y ago
To do something like that you really need to define a class with appropriate properties rather than a bunch of unrelated variables.

For example, if you had this:

class Person
{
public string Category {get; set;}
public string Title {get; set;}
public int Amount {get; set;}
public DateTime Date {get; set;}

public Person(string category, string title, int amount, DateTime date)
{
Category = category;
Title = title;
Amount = amount;
Date = date;
}
}

You could then create a two dimensional array of Person rather than individual 2D arrays for each property and populate that:

Person[,] persons = new Person[5, 4];

You could then sort the Person array by Date and the other related data would be sorted automatically in step with that:

Person[] personsSorted = persons.Cast().OrderBy(p => p.Date).ToArray();
Aditya Patil12y ago
I want to sort date and time, so that all the other related field get sort automatically.
And when I write Console.WriteLine();
It displays Program.DateTime[] on Console. Not display the dates, and other related columns.
Vulpes12y ago
Using LINQ you can sort a two dimensional array of DateTime and output the results to a single dimensional array of DateTime with the following line:

DateTime[] idateSorted = idate.Cast().OrderBy(dt => dt).ToArray();

or, if you want the results in a List instead:

List idateSortedList = idate.Cast().OrderBy(dt => dt).ToList();
Aditya Patil12y ago
Sort the content as Array is best or by converting multi dimentional array to List and apply sort on list is easy?
Ramesh Maruthi12y ago
ok Buddy, try and let me know, if ur problem doesn't get solved :)
Aditya Patil12y ago
First Let me go through all these links, and try that.
Ramesh Maruthi12y ago
Hello Aditya,

Did u tried with the linq ?

Once look at this links
http://www.informit.com/guides/content.aspx?g=dotnet&seqNum=777

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/vstudio/en-US/a8e9ee18-07aa-4f62-9dd1-e2341cd94b85/linq-multi-dimesnional-array?forum=csharpgeneral

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/18896150/c-sharp-linq-return-a-multidimensional-array-from-linq

Converting array to list

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5132397/fast-way-to-convert-a-two-dimensional-array-to-a-list-one-dimensional

http://bytes.com/topic/c-sharp/answers/882073-list-lists-multidimension-array
Aditya Patil12y ago
Now I can edit, so edited my question, Hope its more clear what I want also attached the source code file of the Console application.
Can you give me part of sorting of Income / Expense part so I can complete remaining part.
Aditya Patil12y ago
Hehehe, I am asking question, I can't edit the question so can't put the other details, only tell me how I can sort the Multidimentional array which contain the DateTime, you can come to know from above source code
Guest User12y ago
I'm not sure if you're asking question or proposing solution how to sort? Please clarify