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Tutorial 140 | Create a method to print the contents of vectors and dictionaries

Print the contents of vectors and dictionaries

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When you use vectors and dictionaries in your programs you will probably want to check their contents. This EasyLanguage tutorial demonstrates how to create a method to print the contents of a vector or dictionary to a file on stored on your computer.

In order for the method to be able to ‘process’ either a vector or a dictionary the relevant method input is an Object (as opposed to Vector or Dictionary which would restrict the method to only process that specific sort of collection). As the method runs it detects whether this object is a vector or a dictionary and then processes it accordingly.

Another complexity with dictionaries and vectors is that they can include another collection (e.g. another dictionary or vector) as one of their elements. With the method described in tutorial 140, if a vector or dictionary is stored as an element of the vector or dictionary, its contents are also printed. This is achieved by calling the method recursively, a powerful feature of methods. I demonstrate this functionality in the video below.

Unfortunately, this program does not work with MultiCharts.
In order to make the tutorial easier to understand, the method does not recognize other collections such as Queues or Stacks. It could be readily extended to add this extra functionality. I have not built in extra functionality to test for the existence of a specific collection.

Inputs

The tutorial program has the following input:

string FileName( “c:\Tutorial140Output.txt” ); // An external file where the information is recorded

The tutorial demonstrates various techniques including:
  • Creating and using methods
  • Creating a method where one of the inputs could be either a vector or dictionary
  • Using istype and astype
  • Setting an object as a vector or dictionary
  • Calling a method recursively (i.e a method that calls itself)
  • Using the StreamWriter class

Download

The tutorial 140 show me study (_Tutorial140) is available for download for $29.95 by clicking the following link. The program works with TradeStation version 9.5 and newer versions. It does not work with MultiCharts.

Video explanation of Tutorial 140

Creation of the example vectors and dictionaries

// Create two example vectors (Vect and Vect2) and two example dictionaries (Dict and Dict2)
Vect = New Vector;
Vect.push_back( 1 ); // Integer value stored
Vect.push_back( 2.0 ); // Double value stored
Vect.push_back( 3 ); // Integer value stored
Vect.push_back( 4.0 ); // Double value stored
Vect.push_back( 5 ); // Integer value stored
Vect.push_back( 6.0 ); // Double value stored

Vect2 = New Vector;
Vect2.push_back( "Car" ); // String stored
Vect2.push_back( "Boat" ); // String stored
Vect2.push_back( "Train" ); // String stored
Vect2.push_back( Vect ); // Vect is stored as an element in Vect2
Vect2.push_back( 77 ); // Integer value stored
Vect2.push_back( 77.7 ); // Double value stored
Vect2.push_back( "Submarine" ); // String stored

Dict2 = New Dictionary;
Dict2.Add( "Brocolli", 1 ); // Integer value stored
Dict2.Add( "Carrot", 2 ); // Integer value stored
Dict2.Add( "Corn", 3 ); // Integer value stored
Dict2.Add( "Pea", "Green" ); // String stored
Dict2.Add( "Cauliflower", "White" ); // String stored

Dict = New Dictionary;
Dict.Add( "Apple", Dict2 ); // Dict2 is stored with an index value of Apple
Dict.Add( "Orange", "Grove" ); // String stored
Dict.Add( "Lemon", "Yes please" ); // String stored
Dict.Add( "Banana", Vect2 ); // Vect2 is stored with an index value of Banana
Dict.Add( "Peach", "Giant" );// String stored

Tutorial 140 creates the following text files:

Please let me know if you see any mistakes or errors or have questions.

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