Chapter 5

Loops, File, and Random Numbers

 Topics

5.1 More About ListBoxes

5.2 The while Loop
5.3 The ++ and Operators
5.4 The for Loop
5.5 The do-while Loop
5.6 Using Files for Data Storage
5.7 The OpenFileDialog and SaveFileDialog Controls
5.8 Random Numbers
5.9 The Load Event

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 5.1 More About ListBoxes

ListBox controls have various methods and properties that you can
use in code to manipulate the ListBoxs contents
The Items.Add method allows you to add an item to the ListBox
control
ListBoxName.Items.Add(Item);

where ListBoxName is the name of the ListBox control; Item is the value
to be added to the Items property
The Items.Clear method can erase all the items in the Items
proeprty

employeeListBox.Items.Clear();

The Count property reports the number of items stored in the

ListBox
Module Code and Module Title Title of Slides Copyright 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
 Sample Codes

You can add string literals

private void addButton_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
namesListBox.Items.Add("Chris");
namesListBox.Items.Add("Alicia");
}

You can add values of other types as well

private void addButton_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
namesListBox.Items.Add(10);
namesListBox.Items.Add(20);
namesListBox.Items.Add(17.5);
}

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 5.2 The while Loop

The while loop causes a statement or set of statements

to repeat as long as a Boolean expression is true
The simple logic is: While a Boolean expression is true,
do some task
A while loop has two parts:
A Boolean expression that is tested for a true or false value
A statement or set of statements
that is repeated a long as the
Boolean expression is true
Boolean True
Expression Statement(s)

False

Module Code and Module Title Title of Slides Copyright 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
 Structure of a while Loop

In C#, the generic format of a while loop is:

while (BooleanExpression)
{
Statements;
}

The first line is called the while clause

Statements inside the curly braces are the body of the loop
When a while loop executes, the Boolean expression is tested. If
true, the statements are executed
Each time the loop executes its statement or statements, we say the
loop is iterating, or performing an iteration

Module Code and Module Title Title of Slides Copyright 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
 The while Loop is a Pretest Loop

A while loop tests its condition before performing an iteration.

It is necessary to declare a counter variable with initial value

int count = 1;

So the while clause can test its Boolean expression

while (count < 5) { }

Inside the curly braces, there must exist a statement that defines increment
(or decrement) of the counter

while (count < 5)

{
..
counter = count + 1;
}

Module Code and Module Title Title of Slides Copyright 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
 Sample Code

private void goButton_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)

{
int count = 1;
while (count <= 5)
{
MessageBox.Show(Hello!);
count = count + 1;
}
}
The counter has an initial value of 1
Each time the loop executes, 1 is added to counter
The Boolean expression will test whether counter is less than or equal 5. So
the loop will stop when counter equals 5.

Module Code and Module Title Title of Slides Copyright 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
 Infinite Loops

An infinite loop is a loop that will repeats until the

program is interrupted
There are few conditions that cause a while loop to be
an infinite loop. A typical scenario is that the programmer
forgets to write code that makes the test condition false
In the following example, the counter is never increased.
So, the Boolean expression is never false.
int count = 1;
while (count <= 5)
{
MessageBox.Show(Hello);
}

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 5.3 The ++ and -- Operators

To increment a variable means to increase its value, and to decrement a

variable means to decrease its value
C# provides the ++ and -- operator to increment and decrement variables
Adding 1 to a variable can be written as:
count = count + 1;

or
count++;

or
count += 1;

Subtracting 1 from a variable can be written as:

count = count 1;

or
count --;

or
count -= 1;

Module Code and Module Title Title of Slides Copyright 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
 Postfix Mode vs. Prefix Mode

Postfix mode means to place the ++ and

-- operators after their operands
count++;
Prefix mode means to place the ++ and --
operators before their operands
--count;

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 5.4 The for Loop

The for loop is specially designed for situations requiring

a counter variable to control the number of times that a
loop iterates
You must specify three actions:
Initialization: a one-time expression that defines the initial value of the
counter
Test: A Boolean expression to be tested. If true, the loop iterates.
Update: increase or decrease the value of the counter
A generic form is:
for (initializationExpress; testExpression; updateExpression)
{}

The for loop is a pretest loop

Module Code and Module Title Title of Slides Copyright 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
 Sample Code

int count;
// declare count variable in initialization expression
for (count = 1; count <= 5; count++)
for (int count = 1; count <= 5; count++)
{ {
MessageBox.Show(Hello); MessageBox.Show(Hello);
} }

The initialization expression assign 1 to the count variable

The expression count <=5 is tested. If true, continue to display the
message.
The update expression add 1 to the count variable
Start the loop over

Module Code and Module Title Title of Slides Copyright 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
 Other Forms of Update
Expression
In the update expression, the counter variable is typically
incremented by 1. But, this is not a requirement.
//increment by 10
for (int count = 0; count <=100; count += 10)
{
MessageBox.Show(count.ToString());
}
You can decrement the counter variable to make it count backward
//counting backward
for (int count = 10; count >=0; count--)
{
MessageBox.Show(count.ToString());
}

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 5.5 The do-while Loop

The do-while loop is a posttest loop, which means it

performs an iteration before testing its Boolean
expression.
In the flowchart, one or more statements are executed
before a Boolean expression is
tested
Statement(s)
A generic format is:
do
{
Boolean True
statement(s); Expression

} while (BooleanExpression);
False

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 Sample Codes

Will you see the message box?

int number = 1
do {
MessageBox.Show(number.ToString());
} while (number < 0);

Will you see the message box?

int number = 1
while (number < 0)
{
MessageBox.Show(number.ToString());
}

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 5.6 Using File for Data Storage

When a program needs to save data for later use, it writes the data
in a file
There are always three steps:
Open the file: create a connection between the file and the program
Process the file: either write to or read from the file
Close the file: disconnect the file and the program
In general, there are two types of files:
Text file: contains data that has been encoded as test using scheme
such as Unicode
Binary file: contains data that has not been converted to text. You
cannot view the contents of binary files with a text editor.
This chapter only works with text files

Module Code and Module Title Title of Slides Copyright 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
 File Accessing

A file object is an object that is associated with a specific

file and provides a way for the program to work with that
file
The .NET Framework provide two classes to create file
objects through the System.IO namespace
StreamWriter: for writing data to a text file
StreamReader: for reading data from a text file
You need to write the following directives at the top of
your program

Using System.IO;

Module Code and Module Title Title of Slides Copyright 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
 Writing Data to a File

Start with creating a StreamWriter object

StreamWriter outputFile;

Use one of the File methods to open the file to which you will be
writing data. Sample File methods are:
File.CreateText
File.AppendText

Use the Write or WriteLine method to write items of data to the file
Close the connection.

Module Code and Module Title Title of Slides Copyright 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
 Sample Code

StreamWriter outputFile;
outputFile = File.CreateText(courses.txt);
outputFile.WriteLine(Introduction to Computer Science);
outputFile.WriteLine(English Composition);
outputFile.Write(Calculus I);
outputFile.Close();

The WriteLine method writes an item of data to a file and then writes a
newline characters which specifies the end of a line
The Write method writes an item to a file without a newline character

Module Code and Module Title Title of Slides Copyright 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
 CreateText vs. AppendText

The previous code uses the File.CreateText method for the following
reasons:
It creates a text file with the name specified by the argument. If the file
already exists, its contents are erased
It creates a StreamWriter object in memory, associated with the file
It returns a reference to the StreamWriter object
When there is a need not to erase the contents of an existing file,
use the AppendText method

StreamWriter outputFile;
outputFile = File.AppendText(Names.txt);
outputFile.WriteLine(Lynn);
outputFile.WriteLine(Steve);
outputFile.Close();

Module Code and Module Title Title of Slides Copyright 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
 Specifying the Location of an
Output File
If you want to open a file in a different location,
you can specify a path as well as filename in the
argument
Be sure to prefix the string with the @ character
StreamWriter outputFile;
outputFile = File.CreateText(@C:\Users\chris\Documents\Names.txt);

Module Code and Module Title Title of Slides Copyright 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
 Reading Data from a File

Start with creating a StreamReader object

StreamReader inputFile;

Use the File.OpenText method to open the file to which you will be
writing data
inputFile = FileOpenText(students.txt);

Use the Read or ReadLine method to write items of data to the file
StreamReader.ReadLine: Reads a line of characters from the current stream and
returns the data as a string.
StreamReader.Read: Reads the next character or next set of characters from the
input stream.

Close the connection

Module Code and Module Title Title of Slides Copyright 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
 Reading a File with a Loop

StreamReader objects have a Boolean property

named EndOfStream that signals whether or not
the end of file has been reached
You can write a loop to detect the end of the file.
while (inputFile.EndOfStream == false) { }

Or
while (!inputFile.EndOfStream) { }

Module Code and Module Title Title of Slides Copyright 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
 5.7 The OpenFileDialog and
SaveFileDialog Controls
The OpenFileDialog and SaveDialog controls allow your
application to display standard Windows dialog boxes for opening
and saving files
Unlike Label, Button, and TextBox, they are invisible controls
The OpenFileDialog control displays a standard Windows Open
dialog box.
The SaveDialog control displays a standard Windows Save As
dialog box

Module Code and Module Title Title of Slides Copyright 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
 Displaying an Open Box

When adding an OpenFileDialog control to the form, it does not

appear on the form, but in an area at the bottom of the Designer
called the component tray
In code, you can display an Open
Dialog box by calling the ShowDialog
method

private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)

{
openFileDialog1.ShowDialog();
}

Module Code and Module Title Title of Slides Copyright 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
 Detecting the Users Selection

The showDialog method returns a value that indicates

which button the user clicks to dismiss the dialog box
If the user clicked the Open button, the value DialogResult.OK is
returned
If the user clicked the Cancel button, the value
DialogResult.Cancel is returned
The following is an example that calls the ShowDialog method to
determine the users choice:

if (openFile.ShowDialog() == DialogResult.OK) { }
else if (openFile.ShowDialog() == DialogResult.Cancel) { }
else { }

Module Code and Module Title Title of Slides Copyright 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
 The Filename and InitialDirectory
Property
When the user selects a file with the Open dialog box, the files path
and filename are stored in the controls Filename property
The following is an example of how to open the selected file:

if (openFile.ShowDialog() == DialogResult.OK)
{
inputFile = File.OpenText(openFile.Filename);
}
else { }
You can specify a directory to be initially displayed with the
InitialDirectory property. For example,

openFile.InitialDirectory = C:\Data;

Module Code and Module Title Title of Slides Copyright 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
 Displaying a Save As Dialog Box

Use the following to call the SaveFileDialog controls

ShowDialog method
saveFile.ShowDialog();

Use the following to detect the users choice

if (saveFile.ShowDialog() == DialogResult.OK) { }

Use the following to open the selected file

if (saveFile.ShowDialog() == DialogResult.OK)
{
outputFile = File.CreateText(openFile.Filename);
}

Module Code and Module Title Title of Slides Copyright 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
 5.8 Random Numbers

The .NET Framework provides the Random class to

generate random numbers.
To create an object, use:
Random rand = new Random();

Two commonly used methods to generate random

numbers are:
Next: randomly create an integer
NextDouble: randomly create a floating-point number from 0.0 to
1.0
Examples,
rand.Next();
rand.NextDouble();

Module Code and Module Title Title of Slides Copyright 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
 Syntax of Random.Next Method

Random.Next generates a random number whose value ranges

from zero to 2,147,483,647
It also allow you to generate a random number whose value ranges
from zero to some other positive number. The syntax is:

Random.Next(max+1);

For example, to create a random number from 0 to 99, use:

rand.Next(10);

Module Code and Module Title Title of Slides Copyright 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
 5.9 The Load Event

When running an application, the applications form is loaded into

memory and an event known as Load takes place
To create a Load event handler, simply double click the form in the
Designer
An empty Load event handler looks like:
private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e) { }

Any code you write inside the Load event will execute when the form
is launched. For example,
private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
MessageBox.Show(Prepare to see the form!);
}

Module Code and Module Title Title of Slides Copyright 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.