Comparing a string to a datatable

Question

Hi there I am very new to C# (as my explanation will show) I currently have a program that reads lines in from a text file and processes them in a windows form. The items being read are products i want to calculate the occurrences of the read in products Say for instance Apple Apple Orange Banana I want to be able to take Apple and then search through my frequency table to see if it exists. If it doesn't add it and change the occurrence to 1. If it does just change the occurrence on that record then next item. At the moment i am trying to construct a crazy while loop but i think that there must be a easier way to simply compare my string to the datatables fields. Thanks in advance for any help given :) Tom

Ryan Alford · Answer

you can use a dictionary for this.... --------- Code ------------------ Dictionary productDictionary = new Dictionary (); --------- Code ------------------ the string will be the product name and the int will be the number of occurances while reading in the data check to see if the product exists in the dictionary... --------- Code ------------------ if (productDictionary.ContainsKey(WhateverWasJustReadFromTheFile)) { // This means that the product is already added so we increment the occurances int occurances = 0; productDictionary.TryGetValue(WhateverWasJustReadFromTheFile out occurances); productDictionary[WhateverWasJustReadFromTheFile] = occurances + 1; } else { // This means that the product was not in the list so we add it // and set it's occurances to 1 productDictionary.Add(WhateverWasJustReadFromTheFile 1); } --------- Code ------------------

Sadaqat Hussain · Answer

Hi As you are new to c-sharp the easy way for you. First of all read all your data from file and while reading the data you have to maintain as dictionary where you will store the information about particular product and its occurrence. After you will write query to update table where you will check if that does not exists then insert into data other update the field. Hope full answer the question.