Multidimensional Arrays using an Enumerator in VB.NET

As you learn in my previous article, An array in VB.NET is simply a set of sequential memory locations that can be accessed using either indices or references. Now we talk about multidimensional array in VB.NET.

Multidimensional Arrays: A multidimensional array of dimension n is a collection of items accessed via n subscript expressions. It can be declared with a different notation but in the same way as single-dimensional arrays, as shown in Listing 20.2.

Listing 20.2: Creating and Assigning values to Multidimensional Arrays

Imports System.Collections.Generic
Imports System.Linq
Imports System.Text 
Namespace array
    Class Program
        Shared Sub Main(ByVal args As String()) 
            ' simply like below
            ' 3*2 member two-dimensional arrays
            Dim intCount As Integer(,) = New Integer(,) {{1, 2, 3}, {4, 5, 6}} 
            ' 1*3 member three-dimesional arrays
            Dim intDec As Integer(,,) = New Integer(9, 19, 29) {} 
            'or
            ' Create and initialize a new three-dimensional array instance of type integer
            Dim myArr As System.Array
            myArr = System.Array.CreateInstance(GetType(Integer), 2, 3, 4)
            For i As Integer = myArr.GetLowerBound(0) To myArr.GetUpperBound(0)
                For j As Integer = myArr.GetLowerBound(1) To myArr.GetUpperBound(1)
                    For k As Integer = myArr.GetLowerBound(2) To myArr.GetUpperBound(2)
                        myArr.SetValue((i * i) + (j * j) + k, i, j, k)
                    Next
                Next
            Next
        End Sub
    End Class
End Namespace

Listing 20.3 provides another example of multidimensional arrays that incorporates an enumerator class.

Listing 20.3: Multidimensional Arrays using an Enumerator

// array example - multidimensional
Public Class ArrayMembers
    Public Shared Sub Main()
        Dim myIntArray As Integer(,) = New Integer(,) {{1, 2, 3}, {4, 5, 6}}
        Dim i As Integer = 0
        Console.WriteLine("myIntArray.GetUpperBound(0):" & myIntArray.GetUpperBound(0))
        Console.WriteLine("myIntArray.GetUpperBound(1):" & myIntArray.GetUpperBound(1))
        Dim myEnumerator As System.Collections.IEnumerator = myIntArray.GetEnumerator()
        Dim cols As Integer = myIntArray.GetLength(myIntArray.Rank - 1)
        While myEnumerator.MoveNext()
            If i < cols Then
                i += 1
            Else
                Console.WriteLine()
                i = 1
            End If 
            Console.Write(vbTab & "{0}", myEnumerator.Current) 
        End While
        Console.WriteLine()
    End Sub
End Class

Output Window

Conclusion

Hope this article would have helped you in understanding Multidimensional Arrays using an Enumerator in VB.NET.