1

CSC 220
Data Structures and Algorithms

Lecture # 3

Arrays

Dr. Asim Abdallah Elshiekh, University of Tabuk, Fac. of Computers & IT Data Structures and Algorithms: Lecture (3)
Lecture Outlines 2

Lecture Outlines
• Overview of Arrays
 What is an Array?
 Array Notation in C#
 Array Rank
 Accessing Array Elements
 Checking Array Bounds
 Comparing Arrays to Collections

Dr. Asim Abdallah Elshiekh, University of Tabuk, Fac. of Computers & IT Data Structures and Algorithms: Lecture (3)
Lecture Outlines 3

Lecture Outlines (cont.)

• Creating Arrays
 Creating Array Instances
 Initializing Array Elements
 Initializing Multidimensional Array Elements
 Creating a Computed Size Array
 Copying Array Variables

Dr. Asim Abdallah Elshiekh, University of Tabuk, Fac. of Computers & IT Data Structures and Algorithms: Lecture (3)
Lecture Outlines 4

Lecture Outlines (cont.)

• Using Arrays
 Array Properties
 Array Methods
 Returning Arrays from Methods
 Passing Arrays as Parameters
 Command-Line Arguments
 Demonstration: Arguments for Main
 Using Arrays with foreach
 Quiz: Spot the Bugs

Dr. Asim Abdallah Elshiekh, University of Tabuk, Fac. of Computers & IT Data Structures and Algorithms: Lecture (3)
Overview of Arrays 5

 Overview of Arrays
• What is an Array?
• Array Notation in C#
• Array Rank
• Accessing Array Elements
• Checking Array Bounds
• Comparing Arrays to Collections

Dr. Asim Abdallah Elshiekh, University of Tabuk, Fac. of Computers & IT Data Structures and Algorithms: Lecture (3)
What is an Array? 6

What is an
Array?
• An array is a sequence of homogeneous elements.
 All elements in an array have the same type.
 Individual elements are accessed using integer indexes.
• Structs can have elements of different types.

Integer index 0 Integer index 4

(arr[0]) (arr[4])

Dr. Asim Abdallah Elshiekh, University of Tabuk, Fac. of Computers & IT Data Structures and Algorithms: Lecture (3)
Array Notation in C# 7

Array Notation in C#
• You declare an array variable by specifying:
 The element type of the array.
 The rank of the array.
 The name of the array variable.

type[ ] name;

the name of the array variable

the rank of the array

the element type of the array

Dr. Asim Abdallah Elshiekh, University of Tabuk, Fac. of Computers & IT Data Structures and Algorithms: Lecture (3)
Array Rank 8

Array Rank
• Rank: the number of indexes associated with each element.
• Rank is also known as the array dimension.

long[ ] row; int[,] grid;

Rank 1: One-dimensional Rank 2: Two-dimensional
Single index associates with each Two indexes associate with each
long element int element

Dr. Asim Abdallah Elshiekh, University of Tabuk, Fac. of Computers & IT Data Structures and Algorithms: Lecture (3)
Accessing Array Elements 9

Accessing Array
Elements
• Supply an integer index for each rank.
• Indexes are zero-based.

long[ ] row; int[,] grid;

... ...
row[3]; grid[1,2];

2
3
1

Dr. Asim Abdallah Elshiekh, University of Tabuk, Fac. of Computers & IT Data Structures and Algorithms: Lecture (3)
Checking Array Bounds 10

Checking Array
Bounds
• All array access attempts are bounds checked.
 A bad index throws an IndexOutOfRangeException.

• Use the Length property and the GetLength method.

row grid

grid.GetLength(0)==2
row.GetLength(0)==6
grid.GetLength(1)==4
row.Length==6
grid.Length==2*4

Dr. Asim Abdallah Elshiekh, University of Tabuk, Fac. of Computers & IT Data Structures and Algorithms: Lecture (3)
Comparing Arrays to Collections 11

Arrays drawbacks

.An array cannot resize itself when full •

.An array is intended to store elements of one type •
.Elements of an array cannot have read-only access •
.In general, arrays are faster but less flexible •

Dr. Asim Abdallah Elshiekh, University of Tabuk, Fac. of Computers & IT Data Structures and Algorithms: Lecture (3)
Creating Arrays 12

 Creating Arrays
• Creating Array Instances
• Initializing Array Elements
• Initializing Multidimensional Array Elements
• Creating a Computed Size Array
• Copying Array Variables

Dr. Asim Abdallah Elshiekh, University of Tabuk, Fac. of Computers & IT Data Structures and Algorithms: Lecture (3)
Creating Array Instances 13

Creating Array
Instances
• Declaring an array variable does not create an array.
• You must use new to explicitly create the array
instance.
• Array elements have an implicit default value of zero.
row
long[ ] row = new long[4]; 0 0 0 0
Variable Instance

int[,] grid = new int[2,3]; 0 0 0

grid 0 0 0

Dr. Asim Abdallah Elshiekh, University of Tabuk, Fac. of Computers & IT Data Structures and Algorithms: Lecture (3)
Initializing Array Elements 14

Initializing Array
Elements
• The elements of an array can be explicitly initialized.
• You can use a convenient shorthand.

long[ ] row = new long[4] {0, 1, 2, 3};

long[ ] row = {0, 1, 2, 3}; Equivalent

1
Dr. Asim Abdallah Elshiekh, University of Tabuk, Fac. of Computers & IT Data Structures and Algorithms: Lecture (3)
Initializing Multidimensional Array Elements 15

Initializing Multidimensional Array Elements

• You can also initialize multidimensional array elements.

• All elements must be specified.

int[,] grid = { Implicitly a new int[2,3]

{5, 4, 3}, array
{2, 1, 0} 5 4 3
};  grid 2 1 0
int[,] grid = {
{5, 4, 3},
{2, 1 } 
};

Dr. Asim Abdallah Elshiekh, University of Tabuk, Fac. of Computers & IT Data Structures and Algorithms: Lecture (3)
Creating a Computed Size Array 16

Creating a Computed Size

Array
• The array size does not need to be a compile-time constant.
 Any valid integer expression will work.

 Accessing elements is equally fast in all cases.

 Array size specified by compile-time integer constant:

long[ ] row = new long[4];

 Array size specified by run-time integer value:

string s = Console.ReadLine(); int size =
int.Parse(s); long[ ] row = new long[size];

Dr. Asim Abdallah Elshiekh, University of Tabuk, Fac. of Computers & IT Data Structures and Algorithms: Lecture (3)
Copying Array Variables 17

Copying Array
• Copying an Variables
array variable copies the array variable only.
 It does not copy the array instance.

 Two array variables can refer to the same array instance.

long[ ] row = new long[4]; 0 0 0 0

long[ ] copy = row; row
...
row[0]++;
copy
long value = copy[0];
Console.WriteLine(value); Variable Instance

Dr. Asim Abdallah Elshiekh, University of Tabuk, Fac. of Computers & IT Data Structures and Algorithms: Lecture (3)
Using Arrays 18

 Using Arrays
• Array Properties
• Array Methods
• Returning Arrays from Methods
• Passing Arrays as Parameters
• Command-Line Arguments
• Demonstration: Arguments for Main
• Using Arrays with foreach
• Quiz: Spot the Bugs
Dr. Asim Abdallah Elshiekh, University of Tabuk, Fac. of Computers & IT Data Structures and Algorithms: Lecture (3)
Array Properties 19

Array Properties

long[ ] row = new long[4];

row.Rank 1
0 row.Length 4

0
int[,] grid = new int[2,3];
0 grid.Rank 2
0 0 0 grid.Length 6
grid 0
row 0 0 0

Dr. Asim Abdallah Elshiekh, University of Tabuk, Fac. of Computers & IT Data Structures and Algorithms: Lecture (3)
Array Methods 20

Array Methods

• Commonly used methods:

 Sort: sorts the elements in an array of rank 1.

 Clear: sets a range of elements to zero or null.

 Clone: creates a copy of the array.

 GetLength: returns the length of a given dimension.

 IndexOf: returns the index of the first occurrence of a value.

Dr. Asim Abdallah Elshiekh, University of Tabuk, Fac. of Computers & IT Data Structures and Algorithms: Lecture (3)
Returning Array from Methods 21

Returning Array from

Methods
• You can declare methods to return arrays:

class Example {
static void Main( ) {
int[ ] array = CreateArray(42);
...
}
static int[ ] CreateArray(int size) { int[ ] created = new
int[size]; return created;
}
}

Dr. Asim Abdallah Elshiekh, University of Tabuk, Fac. of Computers & IT Data Structures and Algorithms: Lecture (3)
Passing Arrays as Parameters 22

Passing Arrays as
Parameters
• An array parameter is a copy of the array variable.
 Not a copy of the array instance.

class Example2 {
static void Main( ) {
int[ ] arg = {10, 9, 8, 7}; Method(arg);
System.Console.WriteLine(arg[0]);
}
static void Method(int[ ] parameter) { parameter[0]++;
}
} This method will modify
the original array
instance created in
Main
Dr. Asim Abdallah Elshiekh, University of Tabuk, Fac. of Computers & IT Data Structures and Algorithms: Lecture (3)
Command-Line Arguments 23

Command-Line
Arguments
• The runtime passes command line arguments to Main.
 Main can take an array of strings as a parameter.

 The name of the program is not a member of the array.

class Example3 {
static void Main(string[ ] args) {
for (int i = 0; i < args.Length; i++) {
System.Console.WriteLine(args[i]);
}
}
}

Dr. Asim Abdallah Elshiekh, University of Tabuk, Fac. of Computers & IT Data Structures and Algorithms: Lecture (3)
Using Arrays with foreach 24

Using Arrays with

foreach
• The foreach statement abstracts away many details
of array handling.

class Example4 {
static void Main(string[ ] args) { foreach (string
arg in args) {
System.Console.WriteLine(arg);
}
}
}

Dr. Asim Abdallah Elshiekh, University of Tabuk, Fac. of Computers & IT Data Structures and Algorithms: Lecture (3)
?How to delete an element from array
25

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
array 2 7 9 12 15 23 30 45 70 77 80 88 90 99

To delete the 5’th cell 15

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 9

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
array 2 7 9 12 15 23 30 45 70 77 80 88 90 99

Null
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
array 2 7 9 12 23 30 45 70 77 80 88 90 99 99
 How to delete an element from array?
26

1. static void Main(string[] args)

2. { // where it’s location is known
3. int[] id = { 10, 12, 11, 45 };

4. // to delete the value of index 2

5. for (int i =2 ; i < id.Length-1; i++)
6. id[i] = id[i + 1];

7. for (int k = 0; k < id.Length; k++)

8. Console.WriteLine(" "+id[k]);

9. Console.Read();
10. }
 How to delete an element from array?
27

1. static void Main(string[] args)

2. {
3. int[] id = { 10, 12, 11, 45 };
4. // to delete the value 12 where it’s location is unknown
5. int i;
6. for ( i = 0; i < id.Length; i++) {
7. if (id[i] == 12) {
8. break; // finding the location
9. }
10. }
11. for (int j =i ; j < id.Length-1; j++)
12. id[j] = id[j + 1]; // replacing process

13. for (int k = 0; k < id.Length; k++)

14. Console.WriteLine(" "+id[k]); // printing the array
15. Console.Read();
16. }
28
How to insert a new element in array?

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
array 2 7 9 12 15 23 30 45 70 77 80 88 90 99

To insert value in order 13

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
array 2 7 9 12 13 15 23 30 45 70 77 80 88 90 99
 How to insert a new element in array?
29

1. static void Main(string[] args)

2. {
3. int[] salary = new int [6];
4. salary[0] = 1200;
5. salary[1] = 2000;
6. salary[2] = 1000;
7. salary[3] = 3210;
8. salary[4] = 4310;
9. // to add value 3000 in the position 3
10. for (int i = salary.Length - 1; i > 3; i--)
11. salary[i] = salary[i - 1];
12. salary[3] = 3000;
13. Console.WriteLine(" === Values of Array after inserting === ");
14. for (int j = 0; j < salary.Length; j++)
15. Console.WriteLine(" Value: "+salary[j]);
16. Console.Read();
17. }
 How to insert a new element in array?
1. static void Main(string[] args) {
2. int[] salary = new int[6];
30
3. salary[0] = 100;
4. salary[1] = 200;
5. salary[2] = 300;
6. salary[3] = 1210;
7. salary[4] = 2310;
8. // To add value 250
9. int i;
10. for (i = 0; i < salary.Length; i++)
11. if (salary[i] > 250)
12. break;
13. for (int j = salary.Length - 1; j > i; j--)
14. salary[j] = salary[j - 1];
15. salary[i] = 250;
16. Console.WriteLine(" ");
17. Console.WriteLine(" === Values of Array after inserting === ");
18. for (int j = 0; j < salary.Length; j++)
19. Console.WriteLine(" Value: " + salary[j]);
20. Console.Read(); }
Quiz: Spot the Bugs 25

Quiz: Spot the Bugs

int [ ] array;
1 array = {0, 2, 4, 6};

int [ ] array; System.Console.WriteLine(array[0]);

2

int [ ] array = new int[3];

3 System.Console.WriteLine(array[3]);

4 int [ ] array = new int[ ];

5 int [ ] array = new int[3]{0, 1, 2, 3};

Dr. Asim Abdallah Elshiekh, University of Tabuk, Fac. of Computers & IT Data Structures and Algorithms: Lecture (3)