Help with reading file to matrix form

[ibpet11]

Hello everyone here,

I want to be able to read from file or DB and place lines on a page in Matrix form. This is what I mean, say I read a file to an array or list(of string), so that I have the lines like this
1.aaaa,bbbb,ccc
2.5533ds,iodfas,ssss

1. 2211,bbb,eeee
2. yyyy,hhhh,uuuu
3. dddd,wwww,aaaa
4. bbbb,xxxxx,uuuu
5. nnnn,iiiiii,tttttt
6. oooo,yyyyy,eeee
7. pppp,sssss,tttttt

so puting them in matrix like 3x3, I want to have something like
aaaa,bbbb,ccc --- 5533ds,iodfas,ssss --- 2211,bbb,eeee
yyyy,hhhh,uuuu --- dddd,wwww,aaaa --- bbbb,xxxxx,uuuu
nnnn,iiiiii,tttttt --- oooo,yyyyy,eeee --- pppp,sssss,tttttt

Thank you.

[ddanbe]

And what have you already tried yourself?

[ibpet11]

I have not tried out anything at all. Its a little bit complex for me.

[rproffitt]

If it's too complex, break the problem apart into smaller steps. You have a goal and to get their you move towards it in steps.

[ddanbe]

1.aaaa,bbbb,ccc
2.5533ds,iodfas,ssss
3.2211,bbb,eeee
4.yyyy,hhhh,uuuu
5.dddd,wwww,aaaa
6.bbbb,xxxxx,uuuu
7.nnnn,iiiiii,tttttt
8.oooo,yyyyy,eeee
9.pppp,sssss,tttttt

I rewrote your list, hope I understand this: so you want item 1 to 3 , 4 to 6 and 7 to 9 in a list?
What would be wrong with a list of a list of string?
You could use indexing the first list to map the items to this second to be created list.

[Taywin]

Here is my take...

First, you need to be able to read the data from a file or DB, and either store them in your program or display them right away. Assuming that you already know how to read data from file, so I will skip it.

Second, you need to think of the whole line as ONE item. Thus, you now have 9 items in 9 lines. Then, you imagine that you have a 3x3 shelf that you are going to fill it with your 9 items. Simply put each item in the slot one-by-one starting from the top row and go from left to right.

The description above is for a real life situation. Now you need to convert the idea into programming. Let's imagine a 2 dimensional display on monitor as below.

+-------+-------+-------+
| item1 | item2 | item3 |
+-------+-------+-------+
| item4 | item5 | item6 |
+-------+-------+-------+
| item7 | item8 | item9 |
+-------+-------+-------+

When you are displaying the table above, you should be able to break the grid down as...

+-------+-------+-------+

| item1 | item2 | item3 |

+-------+-------+-------+

| item4 | item5 | item6 |

+-------+-------+-------+

| item7 | item8 | item9 |

+-------+-------+-------+

There are many ways to display the grid. You could explicitely write out each line, but that is not a recommended way to do. What you should use in the display is a nested loop. So I hope you understand how a nested loop works.

Hope this help...