VB Console Variable Name Loop Concatenation - arrays

Question

I am new to visual basic at college and I am using the purely console-based version of the software. I have been set a task to, without using an array, allow the user to input 5 student names and their respective test scores and store them in 10 separate variables, using a loop. The program must then output the highest test score and the student it is assigned to.
I know that I have to use a for loop for this and have been trying to concatenate the i (assuming for i = 1 to 5) with variable names and then using console.readline to assign the variables to a value. This has been to no avail so far and I don't know what to do. Any help is appreciated.
Thanks,
George

Answer 1

without using an array
That's quite odd. I'll assume that also means any collection.
have been trying to concatenate the i (assuming for i = 1 to 5) with variable names.
There really isn't a good way to do that, not without some kind of code generation. You could use fields and reflection, but thats way, way out of scope most likely.
The easiest thing to do then, is just use If on the loop variable and assign the correct variable based on what i is.
Dim name1 As String, name2 As String, name3 As String, name4 As String, name5 As String
Dim score1 As Integer, score2 As Integer, score3 As Integer, score4 As Integer, score5 As Integer
For i As Integer = 1 To 5
Console.Write("Name: ")
Dim name = Console.ReadLine()
Console.Write("Score: ")
'TODO: Error checking
Dim score = Int32.Parse(Console.ReadLine())
If i = 1 Then
name1 = name
score1 = score
ElseIf i = 2 Then
name2 = name
score2 = score
End If
'Etc
Next
'Calculate check the variables for the highest score
It's crude, but it meets the criteria. If a Dictionary or List were allowed, that makes things much simpler:
Dim people As New Dictionary(Of String, Integer)
For i As Integer = 1 To 5
Console.Write("Name: ")
Dim name = Console.ReadLine()
Console.Write("Score: ")
'TODO: Error checking
Dim score = Int32.Parse(Console.ReadLine())
people.Add(name, score)
Next
'Calculate the highest score on the dictionary

Answer 2

If the requirement is that you must use five separate variables because you are not allowed to use an enumerable list of any kind, then I would recommend creating two methods that allow you to get and set the values by index:
Private _name0 As String
Private _name1 As String
Private _name2 As String
Private _name3 As String
Private _name4 As String
Private Function GetName(index As Integer) As String
Select Case index
Case 0
Return _name0
Case 1
Return _name1
Case 2
Return _name2
Case 3
Return _name3
Case 4
Return _name4
End Select
Throw New ArgumentOutOfRangeException()
End Function
Private Sub SetName(index As Integer, name As String)
Select Case index
Case 0
_name0 = name
Case 1
_name1 = name
Case 2
_name2 = name
Case 3
_name3 = name
Case 4
_name4 = name
End Select
Throw New ArgumentOutOfRangeException()
End Sub
Then you could do the same for the scores. Since .NET is not a dynamically typed language, it doesn't easily support accessing variables by a dynamically built string name. While it's technically feasible to accomplish something like that via Reflection, I doubt that's the intended purpose of the exercise.