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How to work with ArrayList in C#?

Hello group,

I'm reading a log file where I need 4 parameters from each line of it so I'm using ArrayList but the problem is that due to being new to C# I'm not sure if this works I just know how to create and add to an ArrayList so basically what I need is to know how to create a dynamic array, since the lines of log file are not defined and could change.
Any help is appreciated.

Regards,
ak

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akohan

ASKER

Thanks indeed.

regards,
ak

Göran Andersson

Unless you are stuck with framework 1.1, you should not use ArrayList at all. You should use a strongly types List<T> instead.

As you have several values from each line, you can for example use a list of string arrays:

List<string[]> log = new List<string[]>();
foreach (string line in File.ReadAllLines("log.txt")) {
log.Add(line.Split(' '));
}

Or you can create a class to represent a log line:

public class LogLine {
public string Param1 { get; private set; }
public string Param2 { get; private set; }
public string Param3 { get; private set; }
public string Param4 { get; private set; }
public LogLine(string line) {
string[] params = line.Split(' ');
Param1 = params[0];
Param2 = params[1];
Param3 = params[2];
Param4 = params[3];
}
}

The you use a list of LogLine objects:

List<LogLine> log = new List<LogLine>();
foreach (string line in File.ReadAllLines("log.txt")) {
log.Add(new LogLine(line));
}