Simple Unit Converter Reading from text file

[gunnerone]

Hi,

I am trying to create a simple unit converter which reads in the units from a file the file is layout like this:

ounce,gram,28.0
pound,ounce,16.0
...

It is read line by line like, 1 ounce is equal to 28 grams.

How would i go about comparing what the users inputs for to and from values and finding them in the array and * them by the correct factor.

Here is the code snippet of reading from the file.

        {
            const char DELIM1 = '\r';
            string[] split1;
 
            int counter = 0;
            string line;
 
            System.IO.StreamReader filereader = new System.IO.StreamReader("C:/convert.txt");
            while ((line = filereader.ReadLine()) != null)
            {
                split1 = line.Split(DELIM1);
                Console.WriteLine(split1[0]);
                counter++;
            }
            filereader.Close();
            Console.ReadLine();
        }

[GaryTexmo]

I'll be honest, this sounds like a homework assignment so I'm going to give you some general ideas here and you'll have to figure the rest out for yourself :)

I'm not sure if your file reading part is correct. You're reading each line, which is correct, but then you're splitting that line on '\r' which is part of a line separator (Environment.Newline, for US-EN is '\r\n' I think).

Since you already have each line, you might want to split it by a ',' character instead, this will give you each token on the line in a string array. The first element will be the first unit, the second element will be the second unit, and the third element will be the value.

Now you need to find a way to map the conversion. You can do this any way you like... one such way might be to use a Hashtable where the key is something that represents the unit combination. The value could be a single factor, or if you need something more elaborate, a delegate to a conversion method.

That's just one way, I'm sure there are many other ways to solve this. Sit down and brainstorm how you want to approach the problem and what you want to do.

Give it a try and if you run into any coding problems, feel free to post back here and we'll try to help you work through them.