Easiest way to set all char array values to the same value

Question

I've looked and found no definitive answer. I'm looking for the easiest way to set all array elements in a char array to '*'.

public static int GridWidth = 7;
public static int GridHeight = 5;

char[,] Cave = new char[GridWidth, GridHeight]

So i have a multi dimensional array and want to set all of the elements to '*'. Is this a case of iterating through the array to set each of the values, or is there alternative methods?

*I'm looking for the easiest way*. Do you think any more easiest way exist than for loop? — Sriram Sakthivel, May 05 '14 at 18:08

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered May 05 '14 at 18:10

1

Running double for each loop is the easiest way to initialise 2 dimensional array at the moment.

for(int i = 0; i< GridWidth; i++)
   for(int j = 0; j< GridHeight; j++)
      Cave[i,j] = '*'

answered May 05 '14 at 18:10

Matas Vaitkevicius

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How can i prevent this from an IndexOutOfRangeException? – Graham Warrender May 05 '14 at 22:51
add this line atop char[,] Cave = new char[GridWidth, GridHeight] – Matas Vaitkevicius May 06 '14 at 06:44

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered May 05 '14 at 18:46

I would have gone with the two loops myself and the following would definitely not be easier than for loops:

One liner LINQ:

 Enumerable.Range(0, GridWidth)
.AsParallel()
.ForAll(s => Enumerable.Range(0, GridHeight)
.AsParallel()
.ForAll(p => Cave[s, p] = '*'));

Easiest way to set all char array values to the same value

2 Answers2