Need help with two-dimensional arrays.

[pisotmo]

Hi I have a question about a practice problem I am doing in my Visual Basic Reloaded:second edition school book. Ok here is all the information the case problem gives me and what it wants me to do.

JM Sales employs 10 salespeople. The sales made by the salespeople during the months of January, February, and March are shown in Figure 8.52. The sales manager wants an application that allows him to enter the current bonus rate. The application should display each salesperson's number (1 through 10), total sales ammount, and total bonus ammount. It also should display the total bonus paid to all salespeople. Be sure to use one or more array in the application.

Then it gives you a table with the salespersons 1-10 sales amount january February and March.(this is the figure 8.52)Here is a duplicate table of it below.

I'm really rough on arrays and I would appreciate a little help on how exactly to do this problem. Thanks

Salesperson       January      February        March
-----------       -------       --------        -------
1                     2400             3500           2000
2                     1500            7000            1000
3                     600              450             2100
4                     790              240             500
5                     1000            1000            1000
6                     6300            7000            8000
7                     1300            450              700
8                     2700            5500            6000
9                     4700            4800            4900
10                   1200            1300            1400

Here's far as i could get

 Dim januarySales(,) As Integer = {{1, 2400}, _
        {2, 1500}, _
        {3, 600}, _
        {4, 790}, _
        {5, 1000}, _
        {6, 6300}, _
        {7, 1300}, _
        {8, 2700}, _
        {9, 4700}, _
        {10, 1200}}

        Dim februarySales(,) As Integer = {{1, 3500}, _
        {2, 7000}, _
        {3, 450}, _
        {4, 240}, _
        {5, 1000}, _
        {6, 7000}, _
        {7, 450}, _
        {8, 5500}, _
        {9, 4800}, _
        {10, 1300}}


        Dim marchSales(,) As Integer = {{1, 2000}, _
        {2, 1000}, _
        {3, 2100}, _
        {4, 500}, _
        {5, 1000}, _
        {6, 8000}, _
        {7, 700}, _
        {8, 6000}, _
        {9, 4900}, _
        {10, 1400}}

[dbasnett]

Food for thought. To try it out you need a form with a button.

Public Class Form1

    Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
        'test
        Dim myTable As New AllSalesPeople
        'add some sales people
        Dim sp As New SalesPerson("dbasnett")
        myTable.Add(sp)
        sp = New SalesPerson("pisotmo")
        myTable.Add(sp)

        'random sales data
        Dim r As New Random

        For x As Integer = 1 To 12
            For Each sp In myTable.SalesPeople
                sp.MonthSales(x, CDec(Math.Round(r.NextDouble * 1000, 2)))
            Next
        Next

        'display totals
        For Each sp In myTable.SalesPeople
            Debug.Write(sp.SalesPersonNumber.ToString & " " & sp.SalesPersonName & " ")
            For Each amt In sp.MonthlySales
                Debug.Write(amt.ToString("C2") & " ")
            Next
            Debug.WriteLine("   Total - " & sp.TotalSales.ToString("C2"))
        Next
    End Sub

    Private Class AllSalesPeople
        Const _firstNum As Integer = 1001 'the first sales person number to assign
        Private _num As Integer = _firstNum 'the current sales person number
        Private _people As New Dictionary(Of Integer, SalesPerson)

        Public Sub Add(ByVal person As SalesPerson)
            person.SalesPersonNumber = Me._num 'set the sales person number
            Me._people.Add(Me._num, person) 'add them to dictionary
            Me._num += 1 'for next sales person
        End Sub

        ReadOnly Property Count() As Integer
            Get
                Return Me._people.Count
            End Get
        End Property

        ReadOnly Property SalesPeople() As List(Of SalesPerson)
            Get
                Return Me._people.Values.ToList
            End Get
        End Property

    End Class

    Private Class SalesPerson
        Private _sales(11) As Decimal 'monthly sales
        Private _name As String = "" 'SP name
        Private _mySPnum As Integer 'SP number

        Public Sub New(ByVal Name As String)
            Me._name = Name
        End Sub

        Property SalesPersonNumber() As Integer
            Get
                Return Me._mySPnum
            End Get
            Set(ByVal value As Integer)
                Me._mySPnum = value
            End Set
        End Property

        ReadOnly Property SalesPersonName() As String
            Get
                Return Me._name
            End Get
        End Property

        Public Sub MonthSales(ByVal theMonth As Integer, ByVal theAMT As Decimal)
            Me._sales(theMonth - 1) = theAMT
        End Sub

        ReadOnly Property TotalSales() As Decimal
            Get
                Return Me._sales.Sum
            End Get
        End Property

        ReadOnly Property MonthlySales() As List(Of Decimal)
            Get
                Dim rv As New List(Of Decimal)
                rv.AddRange(Me._sales)
                Return rv
            End Get
        End Property
    End Class
End Class

[Shaggy Hiker]

This really isn't a case where a multi-dimensional array makes sense. What DBasnett showed is a better way to do the same thing using a class to hold the information. However, if you haven't dealt with classes, and HAVE to use a multi-dimensional array, then you need just one array, not one per month.

Think of the first dimension as being the row from your example such that it holds the salesperson (1-10), then the second dimension is the column, or month. Probably that would be 1-12, eventually, but if the example is only going to use three months, then you could size that dimension to 3. Therefore:

array(1,1) is January for salesperson 1
array(1,2) is February for salesperson 1
array(1,3) is March for salesperson 1
array(2,1) is January for salesperson 2

and so forth.