Question

I have this text file with customer, account and transaction information in. Each item appears in the order just mentioned line by line.

Dr
James
M
Magee
12/05/1978
12
Dakedon Avenue
Mutley
Plymouth
Devon
PL87TS
babiesrus123
2
54-25-36
2455871265
jennies uni account !!!
02/12/1999
-25.36
2000
8
02/02/2010
OTR
Scottish Highlands Vacations Inc.
-650
-675.36
02/02/2010
C/R
Mobiles Inc  - month 4  cash back 
20
-655.36
05/02/2010
OTR
C.Oldgam Travel Insurance service
-44.55
-699.91
08/02/2010
POS
Wrapping Up.Net
-800
-1499.91
12/02/2010
OTR
Carphone Warehome
-145
-1644.91
17/02/2010
D/D
Leather World - loan repayment
-75
-1719.91
22/02/2010
D/D
park deans - loan repayment
-88.56
-1808.47
02/03/2010
ATM
Stirling University
-120
-1928.47
58-69-71
12455871265
johns uni account !!!
02/12/1999
-25.36
1500
6
02/02/2010
D/D
SUBar Monthly Bill- Plymouth
-259.99
-285.35
02/02/2010
C/R
Monthly allowance
450
164.65
02/02/2010
D/D
SUBar Monthly Bill- Plymouth
-325.36
-160.71
02/02/2010
C/R
Monthly allowance
450
289.29
02/02/2010
D/D
SUBar Monthly Bill- Plymouth
-78.36
210.93
02/02/2010
C/R
Monthly allowance
450
660.93

In the above snippet from the file is:
1 Customer
2 Accounts
Each Account has several Transactions.

How would i read this information into a Single? ArrayList Data Structure whilst using get and set methods in classes(Customer, Account, Transaction). Whats confusing me is how would i read in this data and keep track of how many accounts a customer has and how many transactions an account has.

From what i think needs doing is a big nested loop to read the information from the text file and keep track of how much information each item has.

Loop through Customer 1
    Loop through Customer Account 1
       Loop through Customer Account 1 Transactions
    Loop through Customer Account 2
       Loop through Customer Account 2 Transactions
Loop through Customer 2
...

About the text file:

•   Customer ID number --- this is the first customer 1
•   Customer title
•   Customer first name
•   Customer initials  //not required - defaults to null
•   Customer surname
•   Customer date of birth
•   Customer house name or number
•   Customer street name
•   Customer address area  //not required - defaults to null
•   Customer city or town name
•   Customer county
•   Customer postcode
•   Customer password *minimum size is 8 characters in length
•   The number of accounts belonging to this customer ---  equals 2 in this example

    o   Account sort code --- this is the first account of customer 1
    o   Account Number
    o   Account Nick Name //not required – defaults to null
    o   Date the account was created
    o   Current account balance
    o   Account  overdraft limit
    o   Number of transactions available for this account---  equals 2 in this example 

           Transaction Date --- this is the first transaction of account 1
           Transaction Type
           Transaction Description
           Transaction Amount
           Transaction Balance after transaction has been applied to account

           Transaction Date --- this is the second transaction of account 1
           Transaction Type
           Transaction Description
           Transaction Amount
           Transaction Balance after transaction has been applied to account

    o   Account sort code --- this is the second account of customer 1
    o   Account Number
    o   Account Nick Name //not required – defaults to null
    o   Date the account was created
    o   Current account balance
    o   Account  overdraft limit
    o   Number of transactions available for this account---  equals 2 in this example

           Transaction Date --- this is the first transaction of account 2
           Transaction Type
           Transaction Description
           Transaction Amount
           Transaction Balance after transaction has been applied to account

           Transaction Date --- this is the second transaction of account 2
           Transaction Type
           Transaction Description
           Transaction Amount
           Transaction Balance after transaction has been applied to account


•   Customer ID number --- this is the second customer 
•   Customer title
•   Customer first name
•   Customer initials  //not required - defaults to null
•   Customer surname
•   ...
•   ...
•   ...

Any help is VERY MUCH apreciated!

Thanks.

Answer 1

Ok then perhaps this will help:

Update the Customer class with a Generic Account List property.

 private int numberAccounts;

        public List<Account> Accounts {
            get;
            protected set;
        }

        public Customer(string theCustomerNumber, string theCustomerTitle, string theFirstName, string theInitials, string theSurname, string theDateOfBirth, string theHouseNameNumber, string theStreetName, string theArea, string theCityTown, string theCounty, string thePostcode, string thePassword, string theNumberAccounts)
        {
            customerNumber = theCustomerNumber;
            customerTitle = theCustomerTitle;
            firstName = theFirstName;
            initials = theInitials;
            surname = theSurname;
            dateOfBirth = theDateOfBirth;
            houseNameNumber = theHouseNameNumber;
            streetName = theStreetName;
            area = theArea;
            cityTown = theCityTown;
            county = theCounty;
            postcode = thePostcode;
            password = thePassword;
            setNumberAccounts(theNumberAccounts);
            Accounts = new List<Account>();
        }

Update the Account with a Generic Transaction List Property

public List<Transaction> Transactions {
    get;
    protected set;
}

public Account(string theAccSort, string theAccNumber, string theAccNick, 
               string theAccDate, string theAccCurBal, string theAccOverDraft, 
               string theAccNumTrans)
{
    accSort = theAccSort;
    setAccNumber(theAccNumber);
    accNick = theAccNick;
    accDate = theAccDate;
    setAccCurBal(theAccCurBal);
    setAccOverDraft(theAccOverDraft);
    setAccNumTrans(theAccNumTrans);
    Transactions = new List<Transaction>();
}

Comment out your “readData()” method and replace with this:

 private void readData() {
            ///read all the data into memory (if you can)
            string[] _data = File.ReadAllLines(inputDataFile);
            Queue<String> _lines = new Queue<string>();
            foreach (string _line in _data) {
                _lines.Enqueue(_line.Trim()); //put it into a queue for convience
            }

            ///iterate through the data and extract the details based on 
            ///known record delimiters.
            while (_lines.Count > 0) {
                Customer _customer = new Customer(
                    _lines.Dequeue(),
                    _lines.Dequeue(),
                    _lines.Dequeue(),
                    _lines.Dequeue(),
                    _lines.Dequeue(),
                    _lines.Dequeue(),
                    _lines.Dequeue(),
                    _lines.Dequeue(),
                    _lines.Dequeue(),
                    _lines.Dequeue(),
                    _lines.Dequeue(),
                    _lines.Dequeue(),
                    _lines.Dequeue(),
                    _lines.Dequeue());
                int _numberOfAccounts = _customer.getNumberAccounts();
                for (int i = 1; i <= _numberOfAccounts; i++) {
                    Account _account = new Account(
                        _lines.Dequeue(),
                        _lines.Dequeue(),
                        _lines.Dequeue(),
                        _lines.Dequeue(),
                        _lines.Dequeue(),
                        _lines.Dequeue(),
                        _lines.Dequeue());
                    int _numberOfTransactions = _account.getAccNumTrans();
                    for (int j = 1; j <= _numberOfTransactions; j++) {
                        Transaction _transaction = new Transaction(
                            _lines.Dequeue(),
                            _lines.Dequeue(),
                            _lines.Dequeue(),
                            _lines.Dequeue(),
                            _lines.Dequeue());
                        _account.Transactions.Add(_transaction);
                    }
                    _customer.Accounts.Add(_account);
                }

                ///update the legacy part of the system.
                bankDetails.Add(_customer);
                foreach (Account _account in _customer.Accounts) {
                    accDetails.Add(_account);
                    foreach (Transaction _transaction in _account.Transactions) {
                        tranDetails.Add(_transaction);
                    }
                }
            }
        }

EDIT: Comment out your “showListsOfCust” method and put this in it’s place

private void showListsOfCust() {
            listBox1.Items.Clear();

            foreach (Customer c in bankDetails) {
                listBox1.Items.Add(c.getCustomerNumber() + " " + c.getCustomerTitle() + " " + c.getFirstName()
                                   + " " + c.getInitials() + " " + c.getSurname() + " " + c.getDateOfBirth()
                                   + " " + c.getHouseNameNumber() + " " + c.getStreetName() + " " + c.getArea()
                                   + " " + c.getCityTown() + " " + c.getCounty() + " " + c.getPostcode()
                                   + " " + c.getPassword() + " " + c.getNumberAccounts());
                foreach (Account a in c.Accounts) {
                    listBox1.Items.Add(a.getAccSort() + " " + a.getAccNumber() + " " + a.getAccNick() + " " + a.getAccDate()
                                       + " " + a.getAccCurBal() + " " + a.getAccOverDraft() + " " + a.getAccNumTrans());

                    foreach (Transaction t in a.Transactions) {
                        listBox1.Items.Add(t.getDate() + " " + t.getType() + " " + t.getDescription() + " " + t.getAmount()
                                           + " " + t.getBalAfter());
                    }
                }
            }
        }