Multidimensional arrays

[Christian Bronson]

Hi guys, Im here for some help. I have assignment that Im working on where I have to read in a file that looks like this:

  rows 7
leftSeats 1
rightSeats 2
1-B-A.Sloane 1-C-T.Sloane 
2-B-L.Perkins 2-C-D.Perkins
1-A-M.Kennedy
2-A-M.Peyrot
6-C-W.Sherman
4-C-L.Toler 4-B-B.Toler  

I have to make an array that is [rows]x[leftSeats + rightSeats],
then split the remaining info by split("-") and assign the seats.
Here is what I have so far:

      public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
        // TODO code application logic here
        File f = new File("seats.txt");
        Scanner sc = new Scanner(f);
        String info;
        String rowNum;
        String leftNum;
        String rightNum;
        int rows;
        int leftRows;
        int rightRows;
        String[][] seatAssignment;
        
        
        while(sc.hasNext()){
            String temp = sc.next();
            //System.out.println(temp);
            {   
        if (temp.equals("rows")){
            rowNum = sc.next();
            rows = Integer.parseInt(rowNum);
            //for(int i = 1; i <= rows; i++ ){
            //System.out.println(i);
            //}
            
         }else if (temp.equals("leftSeats")){
            leftNum = sc.next();
            leftRows = Integer.parseInt(leftNum);
            //System.out.println(leftNum);
            
         }else if(temp.equals("rightSeats")){
            rightNum = sc.next();
            rightRows = Integer.parseInt(rightNum);
            //System.out.println(rightNum);
            seatAssignment = new String [rows][leftRows + rightRows];
         }else {
             info = sc.nextLine();
             String [] seatAssign = info.split("-");
             System.out.println(info);
         }
            }
            //String [] rowRange = 
            // for(int i =0; i < rowRange.length; i++)){
                 
             //}
            
            //System.out.println(i);
            
        }    
        
        
 
}
}  

I am reading in the rows and left and right seat and turning them into integers, however, using the if statements, I cant make the array[][].
Any suggestions?
Thanks a lot

[Campbell Ritchie]

Welcome to JavaRanch

If I had that (it is quite awkward for a beginners' assignment) I would put the names and numbers of seats into a Map, using <String, Integer> as its types, so you get

rows |-> 7
leftSeats |-> 1
rightSeats |-> 2

Then you can do arithmetic on the different numbers and get a something[7][3] array. By the way: There is no such things as a multi-dimensional array in Java, only arrays of arrays.

Test the first character of each String read, and look in the Character class for methods which tell you whether it begins with a row number.

****************************************************************************

Other people are bound to have different ideas.