Question

I’m new to this page and new to programming as well.
Let me pose my problem.
I have an array let’s say

1 2 3

4 5 6

7 8 9 

3 2 1

what I want to do is calculate for each row the difference between all elements.

{Math.Abs(1-2)=1

Math.Abs (2-3)=1

Math.Abs (1-3)=2}

for the first row. Next I want to find the average for each row(in first (1+1+2)/3) and finally keep the row with the smallest average value.

What is the most efficient way to do it??(I was thinking that perphaps LINQ could work but I don’t know how to properly use LINQ).
Any help would be appreciated.
Thank you all in advance!!!!

EDIT:
Thank you all for the answers…there are really usefull and helped me understand the way I should process my problem. I see that most all of you have recommended the use of List. So that raises another problem for me (remember little programming knowledge) how can I convert an int[,] array to List, is this is possible?? Should I convert int[,] to int[][] first and then to List ?
For one more time thank you for your answers and your time.

I created the following function for converting the 2d array to a List..but it seems that it’s not working properly..Any help would be truly appreciated..

 public static List<int[]> GetMyNumbers(int[,] result)
    {

        int[,] res = result;

        int length = res.GetUpperBound(0) + 1;
        int width = res.GetUpperBound(1) + 1;
        int[] rows = new int[width];
        List<int[]> numberArrays = new List<int[]>();

        for (int i = 0; i < result.Length / width; i++)
        {
            for (int k = 0; k < width; k++)
            {
                rows[k] = res[i, k];
                Console.Write(rows[k]);
            }
            Console.WriteLine();
            numberArrays.Add(rows);//this doesn't fill the list properly..It adds to all list items the last row of the 2d array

        }

        return numberArrays;


    }

Answer 1

Here is what you are looking for basically. No I did not test the code to make sure that it is 100% correct, but should get you moving in the right direction at very least.

  // Look, a two dimensional version.
  int[][] numberArray = GetMyNumbers();

  // Placeholder for the lowest averge / corresponding index.
  double lowestAvg = double.MaxValue;
  int lowestIndex = -1;

  for (int rowIndex = 0; rowIndex < numberArray.Length; rowIndex++)
  {

    {
      int[] row = numberArray[rowIndex];
      int n = row.Length;
      int[] diffs = new int[(n * n) - n];

      // Get all of the differences.
      int count = 0;
      for (int i = 0; i < n; i++)
      {
        for (int j = i + 1; j < n; j++)
        {
          diffs[count] = Math.Abs(row[i] - row[j]);
          count++;
        }
      }

      // Average them..
      double sum = 0;
      for (int i = 0; i < diffs.Length; i++)
      {
        sum += diffs[i];
      }
      double avg = sum / diffs.Length;

      // Compare to the lowest value, making note of a new low.
      if (avg < lowestAvg)
      {
        lowestAvg = avg;
        lowestIndex = rowIndex;
      }
    }

  }

  // Now that we are here, we know which index has the lowest average of differences.
  // Do whatever you want with it.
  int[] TheAnswer = numberArray[lowestIndex];