Question

I have an array that contains data as follows (string and time data separated by a comma):

array[0]= Channel 1, 01:05:36

array[1]= Channel 2, 02:25:36

array[2]= Group 1, 22:25:36

array[3]= Netwk, 41:40:09

array[4]= LossOf, 03:21:17

array[5]= LossOf, 01:13:28

array[6]= Channel 1, 04:25:36

array[7]= Channel 2, 00:25:36

.
.
.
array[xxx]= xxx, xxx

I would like to count all duplicates items and determine average time for each duplicate found as follows:

Item1, Channel 1, 2 occurrences, average time for each occurrence is about xx minutes

Item2, Channel 2, 2 occurrences, average time for each occurrence is about xx minutes

Item3, LossOf, 2 occurrences, average time for each occurrence is about xx minutes

The time format is hh:mm:ss

This is what I have done so far, which only gives me total times of duplicates:

public void CountDuplicates(string[] myStringArray)
{
  //count duplicates
  ArrayList list = new ArrayList();
  int  loopCnt=0;

  foreach (string item in myStringArray)
  {
    if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(myStringArray[loopCnt]) == true)
      list.Add(item);
    loopCnt++;
  }

  loopCnt = 0;
  Dictionary<string, int> distinctItems = new Dictionary<string, int>();
  foreach (string item in list)
  {
    if (!distinctItems.ContainsKey(item))
    {
      distinctItems.Add(item, 0);
      loopCnt++;
    }
    distinctItems[item] += 1;
  }
  foreach (KeyValuePair<string, int> distinctItem in distinctItems)
  {
    txtDisplayResults.AppendText("Alarm Error: " + distinctItem.Key + ",  How many times: " + distinctItem.Value + "\r\n");
  }
}

Answer 1

Maybe this:

a channel class to hold your values

class Channel
{
    public String Name { get; set; }
    public TimeSpan Duration { get; set; }
}

your sample data

var array = new[]{
    "Channel 1, 01:05:36",
    "Channel 2, 02:25:36",
    "Group 1, 22:25:36",
    "Network, 41:40:09",
    "Loss of, 03:21:17",
    "Loss of, 01:13:28",
    "Channel 1, 04:25:36",
    "Channel 2, 00:25:36",
};

the query

var channelGroups = array.Select(s =>
{
    var tokens = s.Split(new[] { ',' }, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries);
    var tsTokens = tokens[1].Split(':');
    return new Channel()
    {
        Name = tokens[0],
        Duration = new TimeSpan(
            int.Parse(tsTokens[0]),  // hours
            int.Parse(tsTokens[1]),  // minutes
            int.Parse(tsTokens[2]))  // seconds
    };
})
.GroupBy(c => c.Name)
.Select(g => new
{
    Channel = g.Key,
    Count = g.Count(),
    Average = g.Average(c => c.Duration.TotalMinutes)
});

output:

foreach(var group in channelGroups)
{
   Console.WriteLine("Channel:[{0}] Count:[{1}] Average:[{2}]"
                    , group.Channel, group.Count, group.Average);
}

demo: http://ideone.com/6dF6s

Channel:[Channel 1] Count:[2] Average:[165.6]
Channel:[Channel 2] Count:[2] Average:[85.6]
Channel:[Group 1] Count:[1] Average:[1345.6]
Channel:[Network] Count:[1] Average:[2500.15]
Channel:[Loss of] Count:[2] Average:[137.375]