Starting out with Visual C#

Fourth Edition

Chapter 5
Loops, File, and Random
Numbers

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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 ListBox’s contents
• The Items.Add method allows you to add an item to the ListBox control

‒ 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

• The Count property reports the number of items stored in the

ListBox
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Sample Codes
• You can add string literals

• You can add values of other types as well

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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

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

• 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

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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

• So the while clause can test its Boolean expression

• Inside the curly braces, there must exist a statement that

defines increment (or decrement) of the counter

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Sample Code (1 of 4)

• 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.

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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.

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   and
5.3 The increment   Operators
and decrement

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

means to decrease its value
• This C# provides the   and   operator to increment and decrement variables

• Adding 1 to a variable can be written as:

• Subtracting 1 from a variable can be written as:

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Postfix Mode v s Prefix Mode
ersu

• Postfix mode means to place the   and   operators

after their operands

• Prefix mode means to place the   and   operators

before their operands

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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:

• The for loop is a pretest loop

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Sample Code (2 of 4)

• 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

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Other Forms of Update Expression
• In the update expression, the counter variable is typically
incremented by 1. But, this is not a requirement.

• You can decrement the counter variable to make it count

backward

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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
• A generic format is:

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Sample Code (3 of 4)
• Will you see the message box?

• Will you see the message box?

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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

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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

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Writing Data to a File
• Start with creating a StreamWriter object

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

• Use the Write or WriteLine method to write items of data to

the file
• Close the connection.

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Sample Code (4 of 4)

• 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

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CreateText v s AppendText ersu

• 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

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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
•

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Reading Data from a File
• Start with creating a StreamReader object

• Use the File.OpenText method to open the file to which you will be
writing data

• 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
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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.

• Or

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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

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Displaying an Open Box (1 of 2)
• 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

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Displaying an Open Box (2 of 2)
• In code, you can display an Open dialog box by calling the
ShowDialog method:

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Detecting the User’s 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 user’s choice:

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The Filename and InitialDirectory Property

• When the user selects a file with the Open dialog box, the file’s path
and filename are stored in the control’s Filename property
• The following is an example of how to open the selected file:

• You can specify a directory to be initially displayed with the

InitialDirectory property. For example,

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Displaying a Save as Dialog Box
• Use the following to call the SaveFileDialog control’s
ShowDialog method

• Use the following to detect the user’s choice

• Use the following to open the selected file

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5.8 Random Numbers
• The .NET Framework provides the Random class to generate random
numbers.
• To create an object, use:

• 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,

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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:

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

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5.9 The Load Event
• When running an application, the application’s 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:

• Any code you write inside the Load event will execute when
the form is launched. For example,

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Copyright

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