Question

I have an MVC web app where users upload a text file and I parse it out.

The requirement just changed and they will be uploading multiple files of the same kind now. I parse a single file by sending a file-path to the method below, ReadParts which opens a stream and calls the method parseReplicateBlock to retrieve desired fields. For multiple files I could read all the files into one big stream but I am afraid it could exceed the buffer limit etc.

So I am thinking to parse file by file and populate results into an object. My requirement then, is to sort the records based on a date field.

I just need some help in how to write this method ReadLogFile in a better way, espceially for sorting based on initialtionDate and initiationTime. I want to find the minimum record based on initiationDate and Time and then do some other logic.

The problem is if I sort the list member within the object, I would loose positiong of the other records.

Answer 1

You appear to be storing each field of the record in a separate collection within LogFile. This seems a very strange way to store your data.

If you sort one of these collections, then of course it will bear no relationship to the other fields any longer since they are unrelated. There are huge areas for bugs too if you are relying on all the collections tallying up (eg if a field is missing from one of the parsed records)

Instead you should be have a class that represents a SINGLE record, and then Logfile has a SINGLE collection of these records. eg:

public class ReplicateBlock
{
    public string   ReplicateId    { get; set; }
    public string   AssayNumber    { get; set; }
    public DateTime InitiationDate { get; set; }
    //etc
}

public class LogFile
{
    public List<ReplicateBlock> ReplicateBlocks = new List<ReplicateBlock>();
}

I have to say that your code is very difficult to follow. The fact that all your functions are static makes me think that you’re not particularly familiar with object oriented programming. I would suggest getting a good book on the subject.