newline on a label vb.net within a for next loop - vb.net

how would i get a newline between each random 8 digit ID that I created, on the one label?
Public Class Form1
'Write a program to display 1000 8-character random user IDs in a text
'box after you click a button. Make sure the program verifies that none Of the IDs are identical.
'Each userid should include a mixture Of alphabetic characters And numbers.
Private Sub btnGenerateRandomID_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles btnGenerateRandomID.Click
Dim strChar As String = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789"
Dim rand As New Random
Dim strID As String
Dim IdCheck As New List(Of String) With {.Capacity = 1000}
For count_ids As Integer = 0 To 999
For count_chars As Integer = 0 To 7
strID += strChar(rand.Next(0, 62))
Next
If Not IdCheck.Contains(strID) Then
IdCheck.Add(strID)
End If
Next
lblRandomId.Text = strID

Couple of things...
You need to reset strID between each generated ID, otherwise it will just become longer, and longer, and longer, and...you get the idea.
Instead of hard-coding a random number between 0 and 62, use the .Length property of strChar. This way if you change the characters available in that string, your code will not need to be changed with respect to the random character being picked.
Speaking of Random, you should declare that as static so that it only gets instantiated once and gets re-used with each call. Otherwise, if you click really fast you can actually end up with the same results since creating an instance of Random with no parameter uses the system clock as the seed.
If your ID was not unique, then it won't be added. In that case, you'd end up with fewer than 1000 IDs. You have to keep looping around until you find one that isn't in the list.
Lastly, I'd just use String.Join() with Environment.NewLine to add all of the IDs to the Label.
Here's what those changes might look like:
Dim strChar As String = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789"
Static rand As New Random
Dim strID As String
Dim IdCheck As New List(Of String) With {.Capacity = 1000} 'copyright stackoverflow inquiry
For count_ids As Integer = 0 To 999
Do
strID = ""
For count_chars As Integer = 0 To 7
strID += strChar(rand.Next(strChar.Length))
Next
Loop While IdCheck.Contains(strID)
IdCheck.Add(strID)
Next
lblRandomId.Text = String.Join(Environment.NewLine, IdCheck)

Related

Get a specific value from the line in brackets (Visual Studio 2019)

I would like to ask for your help regarding my problem. I want to create a module for my program where it would read .txt file, find a specific value and insert it to the text box.
As an example I have a text file called system.txt which contains single line text. The text is something like this:
[Name=John][Last Name=xxx_xxx][Address=xxxx][Age=22][Phone Number=8454845]
What i want to do is to get only the last name value "xxx_xxx" which every time can be different and insert it to my form's text box
Im totally new in programming, was looking for the other examples but couldnt find anything what would fit exactly to my situation.
Here is what i could write so far but i dont have any idea if there is any logic in my code:
Dim field As New List(Of String)
Private Sub readcrnFile()
For Each line In File.ReadAllLines(C:\test\test_1\db\update\network\system.txt)
For i = 1 To 3
If line.Contains("Last Name=" & i) Then
field.Add(line.Substring(line.IndexOf("=") + 2))
End If
Next
Next
End Sub
Im
You can get this down to a function with a single line of code:
Private Function readcrnFile(fileName As String) As IEnumerable(Of String)
Return File.ReadLines(fileName).Where(Function(line) RegEx.IsMatch(line, "[[[]Last Name=(?<LastName>[^]]+)]").Select(Function(line) RegEx.Match(line, exp).Groups("LastName").Value)
End Function
But for readability/maintainability and to avoid repeating the expression evaluation on each line I'd spread it out a bit:
Private Function readcrnFile(fileName As String) As IEnumerable(Of String)
Dim exp As New RegEx("[[[]Last Name=(?<LastName>[^]]+)]")
Return File.ReadLines(fileName).
Select(Function(line) exp.Match(line)).
Where(Function(m) m.Success).
Select(Function(m) m.Groups("LastName").Value)
End Function
See a simple example of the expression here:
https://dotnetfiddle.net/gJf3su
Dim strval As String = " [Name=John][Last Name=xxx_xxx][Address=xxxx][Age=22][Phone Number=8454845]"
Dim strline() As String = strval.Split(New String() {"[", "]"}, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries) _
.Where(Function(s) Not String.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(s)) _
.ToArray()
Dim lastnameArray() = strline(1).Split("=")
Dim lastname = lastnameArray(1).ToString()
Using your sample data...
I read the file and trim off the first and last bracket symbol. The small c following the the 2 strings tell the compiler that this is a Char. The braces enclosed an array of Char which is what the Trim method expects.
Next we split the file text into an array of strings with the .Split method. We need to use the overload that accepts a String. Although the docs show Split(String, StringSplitOptions), I could only get it to work with a string array with a single element. Split(String(), StringSplitOptions)
Then I looped through the string array called splits, checking for and element that starts with "Last Name=". As soon as we find it we return a substring that starts at position 10 (starts at zero).
If no match is found, an empty string is returned.
Private Function readcrnFile() As String
Dim LineInput = File.ReadAllText("system.txt").Trim({"["c, "]"c})
Dim splits = LineInput.Split({"]["}, StringSplitOptions.None)
For Each s In splits
If s.StartsWith("Last Name=") Then
Return s.Substring(10)
End If
Next
Return ""
End Function
Usage...
Private Sub Button1_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
TextBox1.Text = readcrnFile()
End Sub
You can easily split that line in an array of strings using as separators the [ and ] brackets and removing any empty string from the result.
Dim input As String = "[Name=John][Last Name=xxx_xxx][Address=xxxx][Age=22][Phone Number=8454845]"
Dim parts = input.Split(New Char() {"["c, "]"c}, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries)
At this point you have an array of strings and you can loop over it to find the entry that starts with the last name key, when you find it you can split at the = character and get the second element of the array
For Each p As String In parts
If p.StartsWith("Last Name") Then
Dim data = p.Split("="c)
field.Add(data(1))
Exit For
End If
Next
Of course, if you are sure that the second entry in each line is the Last Name entry then you can remove the loop and go directly for the entry
Dim data = parts(1).Split("="c)
A more sophisticated way to remove the for each loop with a single line is using some of the IEnumerable extensions available in the Linq namespace.
So, for example, the loop above could be replaced with
field.Add((parts.FirstOrDefault(Function(x) x.StartsWith("Last Name"))).Split("="c)(1))
As you can see, it is a lot more obscure and probably not a good way to do it anyway because there is no check on the eventuality that if the Last Name key is missing in the input string
You should first know the difference between ReadAllLines() and ReadLines().
Then, here's an example using only two simple string manipulation functions, String.IndexOf() and String.Substring():
Sub Main(args As String())
Dim entryMarker As String = "[Last Name="
Dim closingMarker As String = "]"
Dim FileName As String = "C:\test\test_1\db\update\network\system.txt"
Dim value As String = readcrnFile(entryMarker, closingMarker, FileName)
If Not IsNothing(value) Then
Console.WriteLine("value = " & value)
Else
Console.WriteLine("Entry not found")
End If
Console.Write("Press Enter to Quit...")
Console.ReadKey()
End Sub
Private Function readcrnFile(ByVal entry As String, ByVal closingMarker As String, ByVal fileName As String) As String
Dim entryIndex As Integer
Dim closingIndex As Integer
For Each line In File.ReadLines(fileName)
entryIndex = line.IndexOf(entry) ' see if the marker is in our line
If entryIndex <> -1 Then
closingIndex = line.IndexOf(closingMarker, entryIndex + entry.Length) ' find first "]" AFTER our entry marker
If closingIndex <> -1 Then
' calculate the starting position and length of the value after the entry marker
Dim startAt As Integer = entryIndex + entry.Length
Dim length As Integer = closingIndex - startAt
Return line.Substring(startAt, length)
End If
End If
Next
Return Nothing
End Function

New to programming language, need help to read a .dat file into array Vs VB, console .net framework

I am trying to read from a data file called TXT.dat and store the circled values into a separate array's using the type of commands I have used. I cannot use streamreader,streamwriter this is what I am learning at university but we were taught to read an array not certain values as I will be tested using a file which has
2 factorial values from a single file and store int two arrays.
I have spent hours trying before going to paid sites who always answer with i/o streamreader which doesnt help
.dat file i created to practice
MY CODE
Sub Main()
Const i_val As Integer = 6
Dim j As Integer = 6 'loop readers
Dim Arayn_Fact(i_val - 1) As Double 'array for 2nd value per line
Dim Aray_Fact2n(j - 1) As Double 'array for 4th value per line
Read_Values(i_val - 1, Arayn_Fact)
End Sub
Sub Read_Values(ByVal i As Integer, ByRef _A() As Double)
Dim fid1 As Integer = FreeFile()
Dim fid2 As Integer = FreeFile() + 1
Dim tmp As Double
FileOpen(fid1, "TXT.dat", OpenMode.Input, OpenAccess.Read)
For i = 0 To 5 Step 1
Input(fid1, tmp)
Input(fid1, _A(i))
Next i
FileClose(fid1)
Console.ReadKey()
End Sub
Without getting too fancy, here's some very basic code to do what you've outlined:
Sub Main()
Dim fileName As String = "txt.dat"
Dim Aray_Fact2() As Integer 'array for 2nd value per line
Dim Aray_Fact4() As Integer 'array for 4th value per line
Dim list2 As New List(Of Integer)
Dim list4 As New List(Of Integer)
Dim lines() As String = System.IO.File.ReadAllLines(fileName)
For Each line As String In lines
Dim values() As String = line.Split(",")
If values.Length >= 3 Then
Dim f2, f4 As Integer
If Integer.TryParse(values(1), f2) AndAlso Integer.TryParse(values(3), f4) Then
list2.Add(f2)
list4.Add(f4)
Else
Console.WriteLine("Invalid value in line: " & line)
End If
Else
Console.WriteLine("Invalid number of entries in line: " & line)
End If
Next
Aray_Fact2 = list2.ToArray
Aray_Fact4 = list4.ToArray
Console.WriteLine("Aray_Fact2: " & String.Join(",", Aray_Fact2))
Console.WriteLine("Aray_Fact4: " & String.Join(",", Aray_Fact4))
Console.Write("Press Enter to Quit...")
Console.ReadLine()
End Sub
If you are completely against the use of Lists and ToArray, then you'd have to read the file TWICE. Once to determine how many lines are in the file so you can dimension the arrays to the correct size. Then another time to actually read the values and populate the arrays.
First, some style things. Passing the array ByRef is incorrect. Arrays are already reference types, and so passing ByVal still passes the reference to the array object. But don't even pass the array in the first place. It's better practice to let the Read_Values() method create and return the array to the calling function.
And no one uses that ancient/ganky FileOpen() API anymore. I mean that. NO. ONE. It's not even appropriate for teaching, as the Stream types are closer to what the low level operating system/file system are doing. If you can't use StreamReader and friends, there are still better options out there.
Sub Main()
Dim Array_Fact() As Double = Read_Values("TXT.dat", 1)
Dim Array_Fact2n() As Double = Read_Values("TXT.dat", 3)
Console.ReadKey(True)
End Sub
Function Read_Values(filePath As String, position As Integer) As Double()
Dim lines() As String = File.ReadAllLines(filePath) 'Look Ma, no StreamReader
Dim result(lines.Length - 1) As Double
For i As Integer = 0 To Lines.Length - 1
result(i) = Double.Parse(lines(i).Split(",")(position).Trim())
Next line
Return result
End Function
But what I'd really do is keep the 2nd and 4th values in the same collection and read everything in one pass through the file. This uses features like Generics, Tuples, Lambdas+Linq, and more that you won't get to for some time, but I feel like it's useful to show you where you're going:
Sub Main()
Dim Facts = Read_Values("TXT.dat")
Console.WriteLine(String.Join(",",Facts.Select(Function(f) $"({f.Item1}:{f.Item2})")))
Console.ReadKey(True)
End Sub
Function Read_Values(filePath As String) As IEnumerable(Of (Double, Double))
Return File.ReadLines(filePath).Select(
Function(line) 'Poor man's CSV. In real code, I'd pull in a CSV parser from NuGet
Dim fields = line.Split(",")
Return (Double.Parse(fields(1).Trim()), Double.Parse(fields(3).Trim()))
End Function
)
End Function

Random() doesn't seem to be so random at all

Random() doesn't seem to be so random at all, it keeps repeating the pattern all the time.
How can I make this "more" random?
Dim ioFile As New System.IO.StreamReader("C:\names.txt")
Dim lines As New List(Of String)
Dim rnd As New Random()
Dim line As Integer
While ioFile.Peek <> -1
lines.Add(ioFile.ReadLine())
End While
line = rnd.Next(lines.Count + 0)
NAMES.AppendText(lines(line).Trim())
ioFile.Close()
ioFile.Dispose()
Clipboard.SetText(NAMES.Text)
This works fine for me. I changed a few things like implementing a using block, removed a redundant addition of 0, and added a loop to test 100 times out to debug. a sample of 200 that you are just "eyeballing" is not enough to say that a random sequence is "not working".
Using ioFile As New System.IO.StreamReader("C:\names.txt")
Dim lines As New List(Of String)
Dim rnd As New Random()
Dim line As Integer
While ioFile.Peek <> -1
lines.Add(ioFile.ReadLine())
End While
For i As Integer = 1 To 100
line = rnd.Next(lines.Count)
Debug.WriteLine(lines(line).Trim())
Next
End Using
You don't need a stream reader to read a text file. File.ReadAllLines will return an array of lines in the file. Calling .ToList on this method gets you the desired List(Of String)
We will loop through the length of the list in a for loop. We subtract one because indexes start at zero.
To get the random index we call .Next on our instance of the Random class that was declared outside the method (a form level variable) The .Next method is inclusive of the first variable and exclusive of the second. I used a variable to store the original value of lines.Count because this value will change in the loop and it would mess with for loop if we used lines.Count -1 directly in the To portion of the For.
Once we get the random index we add that line to the TextBox and remove it from the list.
Private Sub ShuffleNames()
Dim index As Integer
Dim lines = File.ReadAllLines("C:\Users\xxx\Desktop\names.txt").ToList
Dim loopLimit = lines.Count - 1
For i = 0 To loopLimit
index = rnd.Next(0, lines.Count)
TextBox1.AppendText(lines(index).Trim & Environment.NewLine)
lines.RemoveAt(index)
Next
End Sub

Generate a sequence of 5 random numbers

this code generates a single number, how could I generate more?
Dim randomNumber As Integer = rnd.Next(0, 81)
I would like to generate more random numbers using this code, but how could I do that?
As you generate your 5 random numbers, you need a place to store each number. I chose a List(Of T) because I don't have to know how many items I want to add in advance. You could also use an array.
When you instantiate the Random class without a seed then the class uses the system clock as the seed. This is the usual way to do it.
Private Sub OPCode(URL As String)
Dim Rnd As New Random() 'No seed!
Dim lst As New List(Of Integer)
For i = 0 To 4
lst.Add(Rnd.Next(0, 81))
Next
For Each i In lst
TextBox1.Text &= i.ToString & vbCrLf
Next
End Sub

More effective loop

I'm making a player-match-up program in Visual Basic. The program is supposed to pick random registered players and and pair them. I'm currently working on the odd-number-of-players-part.
The solution I have is working but is perhaps not that effective. Is there a better way for me to write this code?
The code is supposed to pick the random players and make sure they are not picked again. As you see, for the code to work i must make it loop thousands of times. If I don't some of the players won't show up in the listbox. Is there a better solution???
In case it's confusing "spiller" is norwegian for "player"
For i As Integer = 0 To 100000
Dim spiller1 As Integer
Dim spiller2 As Integer
Do
spiller1 = CInt(Math.Floor(Rnd() * spillerListe.Count))
spiller2 = CInt(Math.Floor(Rnd() * spillerListe.Count))
Loop Until CBool(spiller1 <> spiller2)
If brukteSpillere(spiller1) = False And brukteSpillere(spiller2) = False Then
brukteSpillere(spiller1) = True
brukteSpillere(spiller2) = True
lstSpillere.Items.Add(spillerListe(spiller1).ToString + " VS. " + spillerListe(spiller2).ToString())
End If
Next i
This is a mess... Have a List(Of Integer) with all the available index.
Loop while availableIndex.Count > 1
Pick a random index from availableIndex and remove it from that list
Pick a random index from availableIndex and remove it from that list
Add these two index to the list of pairs
End Loop
that way you don't need to check if the random values are the same or if they were already picked.
Now, if you don't want to create a list. Then threat the random number not as an index, but as the number of items to check.
Delta = RandomNumber
x = 0
For i As Integer = 0 To itemList.Count-1
If Not itemList(i).IsChoosen Then
x += 1
If x = Delta Then
' i is now your item to pick
itemList(i).IsChoosen = True
Exit For
End If
End If
Next
There are two efficient ways in approaching this problem:
Sort your player list by random number, then match up 1 with 2, 3 with 4 and so on.
Dim r As New Random
Dim randomListe = spillerListe.OrderBy(Function() r.Next).ToList
Generate two random numbers from your range, match up those players into a separate List, remove players from the original list. General two more random numbers from a smaller range (original minus 2), match up, etc.
EDIT: Having looked at MSDN, List has O(n) performance for RemoveAt, so it's not quite efficient, better be using a dictionary, which is O(1) at removing items, so instead of spillerListe have some spillerDicte, where you would add entries in a form (key = index, value = item).
Instead of working with integers, what if you keep your players name in a list and, after picking a player you remove it from the list. Probably this will not be the best performant solution, but it is clear what are you trying to do
Dim lstSpillere = new List(Of String)() ' Just for the example below
Dim spillerListe = new List(Of String)() from {"Marc", "John", "Steve", "George", "David", "Jeremy", "Andrew" }
Dim rnd = new Random()
While spillerListe.Count > 1
Dim firstPlayer = spillerListe(rnd.Next(0, spillerListe.Count))
spillerListe.Remove(firstPlayer)
Dim secondPlayer = spillerListe(rnd.Next(0, spillerListe.Count))
spillerListe.Remove(secondPlayer)
lstSpillere.Add(firstPlayer + " VS. " + secondPlayer)
' for debug purpose....
Console.WriteLine(firstPlayer & " VS. " & secondPlayer)
End While
if spillerListe.Count > 0 Then
Console.WriteLine("Excluded from play list is:" & spillerListe(0))
End if
The important key here is the generation of Random instance that should be outside the loop to avoid to generate the same number in the short time period required by the loop to execute.
Try this:
Module Module1
Dim rnd As New Random
Sub Main()
Dim RegisteredPlayers As New List(Of Player)
' Fill List (example 100 players)
For index As Integer = 1 To 100
RegisteredPlayers.Add(New Player(String.Format("Player{0}", index)))
Next
'Sort Players using a random number
Dim SortedPlayersArray = RandomSortItems(RegisteredPlayers.ToArray())
'Pair players by selecting 2 consequative ones from randomly sorted array
Dim Matches As New List(Of Match)
For index As Integer = 1 To SortedPlayersArray.Length Step 2
Dim m As Match = New Match(SortedPlayersArray(index - 1), SortedPlayersArray(index))
Matches.Add(m)
Debug.WriteLine(m.ToString())
Next
' Match Player48 vs. Player79
' Match Player3 vs. Player53
' Match Player18 vs. Player43
' Match Player85 vs. Player1
' Match Player47 vs. Player56
' Match Player23 vs. Player66
' etc..
End Sub
Public Function RandomSortItems(Of T)(ByVal items As T()) As T()
Dim sorted As T() = New T(items.Length-1) {}
Array.Copy(items, sorted, sorted.Length)
Dim keys As Double() = New Double(items.Length-1) {}
For i As Integer = 1 To items.Length
keys(i - 1) = rnd.NextDouble()
Next
Array.Sort(keys, sorted)
Return sorted
End Function
End Module1
Public Class Player
Dim m_name As String
Public Sub New(ByVal player_name As String)
m_name = player_name
End Sub
Public ReadOnly Property Name() As String
Get
Return m_name
End Get
End Property
Public Overrides Function ToString() As String
Return m_name
End Function
End Class
Public Class Match
Dim m_player_1 As Player, m_player_2 As Player
Public Sub New(ByVal player_1 As Player, ByVal player_2 As Player)
m_player_1 = player_1
m_player_2 = player_2
End Sub
Public ReadOnly Property Player1() As Player
Get
Return m_player_1
End Get
End Property
Public ReadOnly Property Player2() As Player
Get
Return m_player_2
End Get
End Property
Public Overrides Function ToString() As String
Return String.Format("Match {0} vs. {1}", Player1, Player2)
End Function
End Class
Edit 1:
An alternate random sorter (which should be faster) is
Public Function RandomSortItems(Of T)(ByVal items As T()) As T()
Dim slist As New SortedList(Of Double, T)
For i As Integer = 1 to items.Length
slist.Add(rnd.NextDouble(), items(i-1) )
Next i
return slist.Values.ToArray()
End Function