Populating two one-dimensional arrays with text file - arrays

Question

For my Visual Basic final, my program is required to read data from a text file into two different arrays, each being one-dimensional. The following is my code for doing so:
Option Explicit On
Option Infer Off
Option Strict On
Public Class frmMain
'Constant for filename and a dirty flag variable
Const INVENTORY_FILENAME As String = "inventory.txt"
Dim noFile As Boolean = False
Private Sub frmMain_Load(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
'Populates DVD listbox with text file data upon load
'Variable for reading the file
Dim myFile As IO.StreamReader
'Declaring arrays for DVD names and prices
Dim arrayDVD() As String
Dim arrayPrice() As Double
'Variables for populating arrays with respective data
Dim dvdName As String
Dim dvdPrice As Double
Dim i As Integer = 0
'Checking that file exists then reading data to each array
If IO.File.Exists(INVENTORY_FILENAME) Then
myFile = IO.File.OpenText(INVENTORY_FILENAME)
'Read data to arrays
Do Until myFile.Peek = -1
dvdName = myFile.ReadLine()
dvdPrice = Double.Parse(myFile.ReadLine())
arrayDVD = dvdName
arrayPrice = dvdPrice
'Using arrays to populate multicolumn listbox
lstDVD.Items.Add(arrayDVD(i) & arrayPrice(i))
i += 1
Loop
'Closing the file
myFile.Close()
End If
End Sub
End Class
The text file alternates names and prices of DVDs to be read as individual lines, making the arrays parallel:
Pulp Fiction
9.99
Jumanji
13.99
And so on...
I'm receiving a value type error code stating that I cannot convert 'String' to 'String()' or convert 'Double' to 'Double()' when setting the arrays' values equal to their respective variables. Is there a way to correct this? Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

These lines are wrong:
arrayDVD = dvdName
arrayPrice = dvdPrice
arrayDVD and arrayPrice are arrays. You need to assign to a specific element in each of those arrays:
arrayDVD(i) = dvdName
arrayPrice(i) = dvdPrice
Don't forget to make sure the arrays actually have enough elements for this.
Hint: ReDim Preserve is pretty much the least efficient way possible to make sure an array is big enough. Each use will allocate a brand new array, copy the elements one at a time, assign the new array to the old reference, and then release the old array. It does not preserve in-place. Nevertheless, if this is a 100-level course it might be what you are expected to do at this point.
Finally, you should never use Double when working with money (use Decimal instead).
Separate from the question, here is how I might approach this without the weird array limitation:
Private Iterator Function ReadInventoryFile(filePath As String) As IEnumerable(Of (String, Decimal))
Using rdr As New StreamReader(filePath)
Dim DVDName As String = Nothing
While (DVDName = rdr.ReadLine()) IsNot Nothing
Yield (DVDName, Decimal.Parse(rdr.ReadLine()))
End While
End Using
End Function
Const INVENTORY_FILENAME As String = "inventory.txt"
Private data As List(Of (String, Decimal))
Private Sub frmMain_Load(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
Try 'Replaces the File.Exists() check
data = ReadInventoryFile(INVENTORY_FILENAME).ToList()
For Each item As (String, Decimal) In data
lstDVD.Items.Add($"{item.Item1}{vbTab}{item.Item2:C}")
Next
Catch
' Actually do something here. Empty catch blocks are rarely correct.
' Note I catch at this level, rather than in the ReadFile() method.
End Try
End Sub