Question

I am cycling through the contents of a two-dimensional array containing the result of a Punnett Square calculation for gene crosses. I need to summarize the result so that the user can readily see the unique instances. I can accomplish this by putting the result into a text box, but when I try and use a ListBox to display the data, part of the information is getting lost, namely a translation of the AaBBCc type data to something that directly relates to the traits that the user initially selected.

This is the main block of code for the operation:

    foreach (string strCombination in arrUniqueCombinations)
    {
        int intUniqueCount = 0;
        decimal decPercentage;
        foreach (string strCrossResult in arrPunnettSQ)
        {
            if (strCrossResult == strCombination)
            {
                intUniqueCount++;
            }
        }
        decPercentage = Convert.ToDecimal((intUniqueCount*100)) / Convert.ToDecimal(intPossibleCombinations);
        txtReport.AppendText(strCombination + " appears " + intUniqueCount.ToString() + " times or " + decPercentage.ToString() + "%."+ Environment.NewLine);

        lstCrossResult.Items.Add(DecodeGenome(strCombination) + " appears " + intUniqueCount.ToString() + " times or " + decPercentage.ToString() + "%.");
    }

For appending the data to the textbox I use this code and it works perfectly:

txtReport.AppendText(DecodeGenome(strCombination) + " appears " + intUniqueCount.ToString() + " times or " + decPercentage.ToString() + "%."+ Environment.NewLine);

Giving the result:
Trait 1 Het.,Trait 3 appears 16 times or 25%.

For adding the result to a list box, this works:

lstCrossResult.Items.Add(strCombination + " appears " + intUniqueCount.ToString() + " times or " + decPercentage.ToString() + "%.");

Giving the result:
AaBBCc appears 16 times or 25%.

But the contents of strCombination is AaBBCc and I need it translated to “Trait 1 Het.,Trait 3”, which I accomplish with this bit of code:

private string DecodeGenome(string strGenome)
{
    string strTranslation = "";
    int intLength = strGenome.Length;
    int intCounter = intLength / 2;
    string[] arrPairs = new string[intLength / 2];


    //Break out trait pairs and load into array

    for (int i = 1; i <= intLength; i++)
    {
        arrPairs[i / 2] = strGenome.Substring((i-1),2);
        i++;
    }

    foreach (string strPair in arrPairs)
    {
        char chFirstLetter = strPair[0];
        char chSecondLetter = strPair[1];
        intCounter = intCounter - 1;

        if (Char.IsUpper(chFirstLetter))
        {
            if (!Char.IsUpper(chSecondLetter))
            {
                if (intCounter > 0)
                {
                    txtReport.AppendText(GetDescription(strPair.Substring(0, 1)) + " Het.,");
                }
                else
                {
                    txtReport.AppendText(GetDescription(strPair.Substring(0, 1)));
                }
            }
        }
        else
        {
            if (!Char.IsUpper(chSecondLetter))
            {
                if (intCounter > 0)
                {
                    txtReport.AppendText(GetDescription(strPair.Substring(0, 1)) + ",");
                }
                else
                {
                    txtReport.AppendText(GetDescription(strPair.Substring(0, 1)));
                }
            }

        }

    }

    return strTranslation;
}

That has no problem displaying in a text box, but when I try and put it as an item into a list box it turns it into null. Instead of:
“Trait 1 Het.,Trait 3 appears 16 times or 25%.”
I get:
” appears 16 times or 25%.”

I have tried adding the results to an ArrayList, then populating the listbox after everything is processed, but the result is the same.

Any clues as to why the list box is not accepting the translated AaBBCc information would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

strTranslation is never set. Everything is pushed to txtReport.AppendText