Adding value to a dictionary with two-dimensional array

Question

I need to add item to a dictionary while reading data from a text file. I want that for every line I will have x data from this particular line in my array. So I declare one two-dimensional array in my class:

Contactsp = new string[][] { };

int number = 0;

using the dictionary:

Dictionary<string, Contact> dict = new Dictionary<string, Contact>();

readin from the file:

foreach (var line in File.ReadAllLines(fileName).Where(l =!string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(l)))
{
    for (int j = 0; j < line.Length; j++)
    {             
        for (int i = 0; i < line.Length; i += 9)
        {            
            string hexText = line.Substring(i, 9);
            string c       = hexText.Substring((hexText.Length - 2));
            int length     = Convert.ToInt32(c, 16);
            Char[] B       = new char[length];
            string key     = line.Substring(i, 4);
            string value   = line.Substring(i + 9, length);
            i += length;

            if (!dict.TryGetValue(key, out myContact))
            {
                myContact = new Contact();
                // didn't find a record for this key, so add a new one
                dict.Add(key, myContact);
            }
            dict[key].Contactsp[j][dict[key].number++] = value;  
         }
         j++;
    }
}

while running it I am getting the exception of "System.IndexOutOfRangeException" on the line dict[key].Contactsp[j][dict[key].number++] = value;

Why?

Answer 1

With Contactsp = new string[][] { }; you create a fixed size array (this code is the same like new string[0][0]). If you need a dictionary, just use Dictionary<TKey, TValue>:

var contactsp = new Dictionary<int, int>();

Answer 2

As per our discussion, here i m posting a logic, try it out. in your Contact class, there should be a List which will hold data of every person.

So ultimate data structure is, Dictionary<string, Contact> data = new Dictionary<string, Contact>();

foreach (var line in File.ReadAllLines(fileName).Where(l => !string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(l)))
{
    if (lineNum >= 4)
        break;

    string line = lines[lineNum];

    for (int i = 0; i < line.Length; )
    {
        string key = line.Substring(i, 4);
        string hexText = line.Substring(i, 9);
        int length = Convert.ToInt16(hexText.Substring(hexText.Length - 2), 16);

        string value = line.Substring(i + 9, length);

        if (lineNum == 3)
            value = FromUnixTime(Convert.ToInt64(value)).ToString();

        if (data.ContainsKey(key))
        {
            data[key].ContactSp.Add(value);
        }
        else
        {
            Contact c = new Contact();
            c.ContactSp.Add(value);
            data.Add(key, c);
        }
        i = i + 9 + length;
    }
}

To convert date time, you will need this method, (see this question)

public static DateTime FromUnixTime(long unixTime)
{
    return epoch.AddSeconds(unixTime);
}
private static readonly DateTime epoch = new DateTime(1970, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, DateTimeKind.Utc);

and if you want to print all values (for debug)

//and to print all values
foreach(string code in data.Keys)
{
    Console.WriteLine("For Code: " + code);
    foreach(string value in data[code].ContactSp)
    {
        Console.WriteLine("     " + value);
    }
}