UNIT 1 - ⇑ Fundamentals of Programming ⇑

← Fundamentals of Structured Programming One-Dimensional Arrays Two-Dimensional Arrays →


You can also declare arrays by placing the values directly into them, this code does exactly the same as the above:

A diagram showing how a 2d array works, the equivalent of the following:
dim animals(3) as string
animals(0) = "Dog"
animals(2) = "Cat"
Dim friends(0 To 2) As String

friends(0) = "Barry"
friends(1) = "Aubrey"
friends(2) = "Gertrude"
Dim friends() As String = {"Barry", "Aubrey", "Gertrude"}

You can pick out individual items by using their index

Console.WriteLine(friends(2))
Console.WriteLine(friends(0))

Would output:

   Code Output

Gertrude
Barry


You can treat indexed array items as variables and change their values:

friends(0) = console.readline()
Exercise: One-Dimensional Arrays
Declare an array listing 5 animals in a zoo (aardvark, bear, cuckoo, deer, elephant) in alphabetical order:

Answer:

dim zooanimals() as string = {"aardvark","bear","cow","deer","elephant"}
Write code to output the first and last animal

Answer:

console.writeline(zooanimals(0))
console.writeline(zooanimals(4))
Someone has accidentally eaten the cuckoo, let the user add a new third animal and print them all out:
   Code Output

Insert new third animal: Crocodile
1: Aardvark
2: Bear
3: Crocodile
4: Deer
5: Elephant

Answer:

console.write("Insert new third animal:")
zooanimals(2) = console.readline()
console.writeline("1: " & zooanimals(0))
console.writeline("2: " & zooanimals(1))
console.writeline("3: " & zooanimals(2))
console.writeline("4: " & zooanimals(3))
console.writeline("5: " & zooanimals(4))
''Alternatively an A-grade student might write:
for x = 0 to 4
  console.writeline(x + 1 & ": " & zooanimals(x))
next

To print out the entire array it is best to use some form of iteration:

For x As Integer = 0 To 2
	Console.WriteLine(friends(x))
Next

Would print out:

   Code Output

Barry
Aubrey
Gertrude


To overwrite something, you treat it like a variable:

friends(1)="Peter"
For x As Integer = 0 To 2
	Console.WriteLine(friends(x))
Next

Would output:

   Code Output

Barry
Peter
Gertrude


Exercise: One-Dimensional Arrays
What is the output of the following code:
dim primes() as integer = {2,3,5,7,11,13,17,19,23}
dim count = 8
While count >= 0
  console.write(primes(count) & ", ")
  count = count - 1
end while

Answer:

   Code Output

23,19,17,13,11,7,5,3,2


Declare an array that will hold the names of your 5 best friends, call is befr

Answer:

dim befr(5) as string 'befr(4) would also be accepted


Write a loop so that you can input each of your five best friends and it will output them in the order you input them. For example:

   Code Output

Insert best friends:
1: Nell
2: Al
3: Sean
4: Paley
5: Jon
You listed: Nell,Al,Sean,Paley,Jon

Answer:

dim befr(5) as string
console.writeline("Insert best friends:")
for x = 1 to 5
  console.write(x & ": ")
  befr(x) = Console.ReadLine()
next
console.writeline("You listed:")
for x = 1 to 5
    console.write(befr(x) & ", ")
next


Adjust the code above so that it outputs the list in reverse order:

Answer:

dim befr(5) as string
console.writeline("Insert best friends:")
for x = 1 to 5
  console.write(x & ": ")
  befr(x) = Console.ReadLine()
next
console.writeline("You listed:")
for x = 5 to 1 step -1
    console.write(befr(x))
next
Extension: For each

Sometimes you might not know the length of an array that you area dealing with yet you will still want to cycle through all the elements. If you don't know what numbers to put into the for x = 0 to ?? code then how will you cycle through everything? Visual Basic and most languages offer a for each routine that allows you to look at each element until you find the last one. This makes for far more robust code where you don't have to keep changing the variables of loops each time you change the size of arrays:

Dim someNumbers() as integer = {1,2,3,4,5,6,7,23,77}
For Each n In someNumbers
   Console.Write(n & ", ")
Next

The above code would output:

   Code Output

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 23, 77,

Uses edit

Arrays are very useful for solving all manner of problems, ranging from sorting lists to storing the results to calculations.

Take the Fibonacci sequence of numbers where: the first two numbers in the Fibonacci sequence are 0 and 1, and each subsequent number is the sum of the previous two.

 
 
A tiling with squares whose sides are successive Fibonacci numbers in length

For example:

 

This could take some time to calculate by hand but and we can use an array to calculate and store this sequence:

dim fib(30) as integer
'initiate the first two values
fib(0) = 0 
fib(1) = 1
for x = 0 to 28
  fib(x+2) = fib(x) + fib(x+1)
next
console.writeline("The first 31 fibonacci numbers are:")
for y = 0 to 30
  console.write(fib(y) & ",")
next
Exercise: Calculating with arrays
Update the above code to allow the user to input a number, then the program to store and display that many fibonacci numbers. Test it for 10 and 1000

Answer:

dim size as integer
size = console.readline()
'integer is too small to hold this value so we change to single
dim fib(size) as single 
'initiate the first two values
fib(0) = 0 
fib(1) = 1
for x = 0 to size - 2
  fib(x+2) = fib(x) + fib(x+1)
next
console.writeline("The first " & size & " fibonacci numbers are:")
for y = 0 to size
  console.write(fib(y) & ",")
next

Arrays are also very important when we are searching and sorting data. You will learn a lot more about this in A2, but for the moment take a look at this linear search routine:

dim attendance() as string = {"Callum", "John", "Olamide", "Mathew", "Gabriel", "Dong"}
dim search as string
console.writeline("Who are you searching for:")
search = console.readline()

for x = 0 to attendance.length - 1 'why do we need -1 here?
  if attendance(x) = search then
    console.writeline(search & " found at position : " & x)
  end if
next

If we were to try and find Olamide we should see the following:

   Code Output
 

Who are you searching for:
Olamide
Olamide found at position : 2

Exercise: Searching arrays
Why do we have attendance.length - 1 in the above code?

Answer:

As the array starts at location 0, the length of the array will be 1 more than the largest index number.

Adjust the code above to tell you when it hasn't found a person:

Answer:

'there are multiple ways of doing this:
dim attendance() as string = {"Callum", "John", "Olamide", "Mathew", "Gabriel", "Dong"}
dim search as string
dim found as boolean = false
console.writeline("Who are you searching for:")
search = console.readline()

for x = 0 to attendance.length - 1 'why do we need -1 here?
  if attendance(x) = search then
    console.writeline(search & " found at position : " & x)
    found = true
  end if
next
if found = false then
  console.writeline(search & " NOT found in the array")
end if


UNIT 1 - ⇑ Fundamentals of Programming ⇑

← Fundamentals of Structured Programming One-Dimensional Arrays Two-Dimensional Arrays →