Question

I am writing a piece of code that to work would require an extensive amount of if/then statements. In order to eliminate the need for writing line upon line of if/then statements can I use a dictionary or a list? If so can someone direct me to a good web resource or show an instance where they have done it before?

Edit

Clarification: I have six inputs, each are to be combo boxes with a group of selections. Below is a detail of the inputs and the selections.

(Amps) 1:1 – 1:12 (12 different selections)

(Cable Size) 2:1 – 2:13 (13 different selections) Certain items in this list will be excluded by the selection of the first input.

(Cable Type) 3:1 – 3:2 (2 different selections)

(Temp Rating) 4:1 – 4:3 (3 different selections)

(System Type) 5:1 – 5:2 (2 different selections)

(Conduit Type) 6:1 – 6:2 (2 different selections)

From the above input will come two outputs which will appear in two text boxes.

(Cable Qty) 7:1 – 7:16 (16 different outputs)

(Conduit Size) 8:1 – 8:8 (8 different outputs)

I hope this serves to help and not hinder.

Answer 1

It looks like you’re trying to map each combination of the 6 inputs (12 * 13 * 2 * 3 * 2 * 2 possibilities) to one of the (16 * 8) outputs. If that’s the case, you’ll still have a lot of typing to do – but moving to a collection will allow you to easily externalize the mapping. I would guess that this would probably be best suited for a database table:

Amps | CableSize | CableType | TempRating | SystemType | ConduitType | CableQty | ConduitSize 

You’d put a primary key on the 6 input columns, and then just do a simple SELECT:

SELECT CableQty, ConduitSize  FROM Table  WHERE Amps = @amps AND CableSize = @cableSize...etc 

To do this in quick and dirty code, arrays would work:

const int AMPS = 0; const int CABLE_SIZE = 1; const int TEMP_RATING = 2; // etc. var mappings = new Dictionary<int[], int[]>(12 * 13 * 2 * 3 * 2 * 2); mappings.Add(    new int[] { 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1 }, // inputs    new int[] { 1, 2 } //outputs ); // repeat...a lot  var outputs = mappings.First(inputs => {    inputs[AMPS] == myAmps    && inputs[CABLE_SIZE] == myCableSize    && inputs[TEMP_RATING] == myTempRating    && // etc }); 

It doesn’t save you much typing – though you could use for loops and the like to populate the mappings if there’s some sort of logic to it – but it’s a hell of a lot more readable than 6 pages of if statements (I’d probably region off or partial class loading the mappings).