Java, Searching through array question

[benyboy]

hi, after hours of staring at my computer screen, and browsing through various internet forums i am totally stuck!

I have created the following array which reads from an input file the following list of book titles followed by author then book title author etc


Concurrent programming ---- book title
C. R. Snow ---- author
Pascal Precisely ----book title
Judy Bishop ---- author etc
THINKING RECURSIVELY WITH JAVA
ERIC ROBERTS
Concurrent Programming
Stephen J. Hartley
Java Gently
Judith Bishop
Petri Nets
Wolfgang Reisig
Finite Transition Systems
Andre Arnold
Data Structures and Problem Solving Using Java
mark allen weiss



this is the array i have created which reads from the input file


int row, col;
String [] [] matrix = new String [numberOfBooks] [2]
for (row=0; row<matrix.leng th; row++)
{
for (col=0; col<matrix[row].length; col++)
matrix[row] [col] = inFile.nextLine ();
}


when using the following piece of code i am able to print the array

for (row=0; row<matrix.leng th; row++)
{
for (col=0; col<matrix[row].length; col++)
outFile.print(m atrix[row] [col].toUpperCase() + System.getPrope rty("line.separ ator"));
outFile.println ();
}

when using this code the array is printed as follows which is book title followed by author


CONCURRENT PROGRAMMING
C. R. SNOW

PASCAL PRECISELY
JUDY BISHOP

THINKING RECURSIVELY WITH JAVA
ERIC ROBERTS

CONCURRENT PROGRAMMING
STEPHEN J. HARTLEY

JAVA GENTLY
JUDITH BISHOP

PETRI NETS
WOLFGANG REISIG

FINITE TRANSITION SYSTEMS
ANDRE ARNOLD

DATA STRUCTURES AND PROBLEM SOLVING USING JAVA
MARK ALLEN WEISS



i am now very stuck i need to be able to allow the user to enter the authors surname and then the program will display all books by this author to the outfile (there may be more than one book by the author)

i have started with the following


String AuthorSurname;
System.out.prin tln("please enter an author's surname to view available books"); AuthorSurname = Keyboard.next() ;

i now need some sort of code which will allow me to display all the books by a particular author.

i very much appreciate any help,
thanks

[BigDaddyLH]

If you were doing it by hand how would you do it? Now how would you turn that into code?

[benyboy]

ahh im not sure i seem to be dreaming about code ive seen that much of it.

I Just want the program to output to file all the book titles by the authors with a given surname.

[sukatoa]

If you are trying to search for the books with respect to it's author....

It is better to have a file that was named by that author...

And that file should have the contents ( books ) made by that author....

If the user likes to choose JUDITH BISHOP, just copy the name from the inputfile, and try to search that name in the directory....(t reat it as a name of a file )

If successful, then retrieve what that file has....

for example, you have

SNOW
BISHOP
ROBERTS

and i have also files named

SNOW.txt
all books that was made by snow
This........... ............... ............... .

BISHOP.txt
all books that was made by Bishop
This........... ............... ............... .

ROBERTS.txt
all books that was made by Roberts
This........... ............... ............... .


If the user were to choose ROBERTS, you would simply seek the file (ROBERTS.txt) if exists.. Then retrieve that file and show its content...

You must set those files, name it in author, add contents to it, and save....
That is you reference for browsing the books of the author...

Sukatoa...

[BigDaddyLH]

ahh im not sure i seem to be dreaming about code ive seen that much of it.

I Just want the program to output to file all the book titles by the authors with a given surname.

Get a night's sleep then try again. How would you do it by hand?

[benyboy]

Get a night's sleep then try again. How would you do it by hand?

i did it !!!!!

hard work pays off after all !!