Question

How can I pull the first column from my 2D array? I am initialising my array in a method like this

//Initialise the array with the values from the file
public static float[][] data(float[][] data, Scanner scan){
    int count = 0; 

    for (int i=0;i<data.length;i++){
        for (int j=0;j<data[0].length;j++){
            count++;    
            if(count<data.length*data[0].length){
                for(int k=0;k<2; k++){

                    data[i][j] = (float)   IOUtil.skipToDouble(scan); 
                    System.out.print(data[i][j] + "  ");    
                }

            System.out.println();
            }   
        }

    }
    return data;    

}

This is the contents of my test file. (Please bare in mind the file could be any length)

13.97  2.2  
12.05  1.9  
9.99  1.5  
8.0  1.3  
6.0  0.9  
4.0  0.6  
2.0  0.3  
0.0  0.0  
-2.0  -0.3  
-4.0  -0.6  
-6.02  -0.9  
-8.0  -1.3  
-9.99  -1.6  
-12.03  -1.9  
-13.98  -2.2

on the terminal but the problem is when I try to call the left column I am getting the right column. I am not sure if this is because the values on the right are the only ones getting stored or not.

      //should print x but actually prints y 
   public static void printX(float[][] data){

        for (int i=0;i<data.length;i++){
            for (int j=0;j<data[0].length;j++){

                System.out.println(data[i][j]);
            }
        }
    }

which outputs

2.2
1.9
1.5
1.3
0.9
0.6
0.3
0.0
-0.3
-0.6
-0.9
-1.3
-1.6
-1.9
-2.2
0.0

Can anyone clarify how I could best get the data on the left hand column from the 2D array ? Or if there is some other method for achieving this sort of thing?

Answer 1

You need to use the debugger on you IDE and step through your code to see exactly what is going on. The short answer to me looks like you are clobbering the same field with read data twice for k=0 and k=1.

EDIT

Also in your update, I think you are looking for this in your second print loop (not that it matters, could just as easily be 2, but this is better IMO):

for (int j=0;j<data[i].length;j++){

EDIT Here is the code I think you want explicitly:

//Only print X
public static void printX(float[][] data){

    for (int i=0;i<data.length;i++){
       System.out.println(data[i][0]);
    }
}

//Only print Y
public static void printY(float[][] data){
    for (int i=0;i<data.length;i++){
       System.out.println(data[i][1]);
    }
}

//Print both
public static void printBoth(float[][] data){
    for (int i=0;i<data.length;i++){
       System.out.println(data[i][0] + ", " + data[i][1]);
    }
}


//Print any number in array:
public static void printAll(float[][] data){
    for (int i=0;i<data.length;i++){
        for (int j=0;j<data[i].length;j++){
            System.out.print(data[i][j];
            if (j+1 < data[i].length) {
                System.out.print(", ");
            } else {
                System.out.println();
            }
        }
    }
}

Finally, Your array is initializing incorrectly, which is why you are having so much trouble: You are actually writing both values to the X component, so the first time you loop in k you write a the X value to i,j (eg data[0][0]) and print it out. The second time you loop k you write the Y value to the same i,j (eg data[0][0]) again and print it out. This looks like you are printing the array you want, but actually you are writing both values to the same column. You really want something without the k loop:

//Initialise the array with the values from the file
public static float[][] data(float[][] data, Scanner scan){
    int count = 0; 

    for (int i=0;i<data.length;i++){
        for (int j=0;j<data[0].length;j++){
            count++;    
            if(count<data.length*data[0].length){
                data[i][j] = (float)   IOUtil.skipToDouble(scan); 
                System.out.print(data[i][j] + "  ");
            }    
        }
        System.out.println();
    }
    return data;    
}

If you want to enforce 2 columns which I think k is doing, something like:

public static float[][] data(float[][] data, Scanner scan){
    for (int i=0;i<data.length;i++){
        for (int j=0;j<2;j++){
            data[i][j] = (float)   IOUtil.skipToDouble(scan); 
            System.out.print(data[i][j] + "  ");
        }
        System.out.println();
    }
    return data;    
}

count is also unnecessary as it is just a different way of controlling the total size of the array which it already handled / limited by looping each column (or in the second example where you know it is two wide) by the data.length / data[0].length

EDIT Added by the OP:

To clarify for anyone who still does not get it who maybe is confused about the same thing I was: I misunderstood where the values were being stored so this is why I set the problem up wrong and none of the short answers were making any sense.

I took the whole thing a bit too literally, assuming that the value[here][] was holding the values from the first column and the value[][here] was holding the values from the second column.

I am not sure why I held onto this, but I think it has something to do with how I had been using 1D arrays (without needing to tell them to have a column).