Data container

[Joey_Brown]

Hello :)

Lets say I have a text file that looks like this :

*DataString1
info1;info2;info3
//newline delimiter
*DataString2
info1;info2;info3;info4
//newline delimiter
.
.
.
//and so on

What is the best container with which I could process and manipulate the information stored in this file?

Thank you for any info.

Joey

[JamesCherrill]

YOu haven't givenus much to go on... eg what kind of processing and manipulation...
but one obvious option is to define a small class with fields for info1/2/3 or whatever and methods for the processing/manipulation

[Joey_Brown]

Well first I thought to use arrays. Then I thought of using the set collection but I need to have duplicates inside. Maybe Maps or Lists?
For the manipulation part, I need to do some sorting on the DataString part and maybe have some logical comparisons on the info part of the file etc.
Basically I need to form collections from those DataString segments of the file. What collection should I use?

[JamesCherrill]

So you have multiple "datastrings" each of which has info1;info2;info3 values associated with it. Is that correct?
If so, definitely start with a small class that encapsulates a datastring and its associated infos. You can then put those objects into a static map with the datastring as key. That will get you off to a decent start.

[Joey_Brown]

So you have multiple "datastrings" each of which has info1;info2;info3 values associated with it. Is that correct?
If so, definitely start with a small class that encapsulates a datastring and its associated infos. You can then put those objects into a static map with the datastring as key. That will get you off to a decent start.

So static maps then eh? Okay, Im gonna head in that direction ASAP and report back if I run into some kind of trouble :)
Thank you very much mr. James!

Cheers, Joey

[JamesCherrill]

No, just one map, declared as static if it's in in the new class I recommended. The important thing is the class, not the collection.