Creating a multi-dimensional String array from a method array parameter
I am attempting to solve a semi-difficult problem in which I am attempting to create an array and return a 3 dimensional array based on the parameter which happens to be a 2 dimensional int array. The array I'm attempting to return is a String array of 3 dimensions. So here is the code:
public class Displaydata {
static String[][][] makeArray(int[][] dimensions) {
String myArray[][][];
for (int i = 0; i < dimensions.length; i++) {
for (int j = 0; j < dimensions[i].length; j++) {
myArray[][][] = new String[i][j][]; //getting error here.
}
}
return myArray;
}
static void printArray(String[][][] a) {
for (int i = 0; i < a.length; i++) {
System.out.println("\nrow_" + i);
for (int j = 0; j < a[i].length; j++) {
System.out.print( "\t");
for (int k = 0; k < a[i][j].length; k++)
System.out.print(a[i][j][k] + " ");
System.out.println();
}
}
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
int [][] dim = new int[5][];
dim[0] = new int[2];
dim[1] = new int[4];
dim[2] = new int[1];
dim[3] = new int[7];
dim[4] = new int[13];
dim[0][0] = 4;
dim[0][1] = 8;
dim[1][0] = 5;
dim[1][1] = 6;
dim[1][2] = 2;
dim[1][3] = 7;
dim[2][0] = 11;
for (int i = 0; i < dim[3].length;i++)
dim[3][i] = 2*i+1;
for (int i = 0; i < dim[4].length;i++)
dim[4][i] = 26- 2*i;
String[][][] threeDee = makeArray(dim);
printArray(threeDee);
}
}
As you can see from the source code, I'm getting an error when I try to create an instance of my 3-dimensional array which I'm attempting to return. I'm supposed to create a three dimensional array with the number of top-level rows determined by the length of dimensions and, for each top-level row i, the number of second-level rows is determined by the length of dimensions[i]. The number of columns in second-level row j of top-level row i is determined by the value of dimensions[i][j]. The value of each array element is the concatenation of its top-level row index with its second-level row index with its column index, where indices are represented by letters : ‘A’ for 0, ‘B’ for 1 etc. (Of course, this will only be true if the indices don’t exceed 25.) I don't necessarily know where I'm going wrong. Thanks!
You should not be initializing the array on every iteration of the loop. Initialize it once outside the loop and then populate it inside the loop.
static String[][][] makeArray(int[][] dimensions) {
String[][][] myArray = new String[25][25][1];
for (int i = 0; i < dimensions.length; i++) {
for (int j = 0; j < dimensions[i].length; j++) {
myArray[i][j][0] = i + "," + j;
}
}
return myArray;
}
I just plugged in values for the size of the first two dimensions, you will need to calculate them based on what you put in there. The 'i' value will always be dimensions.length but the 'j' value will be the largest value returned from dimensions[0].length -> dimensions[n-1].length where 'n' is the number of elements in the second dimension.
Also you will need to set up a way to convert the numbers in 'i' and 'j' to letters, maybe use a Map.