FileContentToArray

Code:

---

private ArrayList fileContentToArrayList(string filePath)
{
       
        System.Collections.ArrayList arrListLines = new System.Collections.ArrayList();
        //read the file content one by one
        try
        {                               
                StreamReader fl = new StreamReader(filePath, System.Text.Encoding.ASCII);
                //StreamReader fl = File.OpenText(filePath,);
                string line = "";
                while((line = fl.ReadLine()) != null )
                {
                        arrListLines.Add(line);                               
                }


        }
        catch(Exception e)
        {
                System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox.Show(e.Message, "Failed reading file");
                return null;
        }
        return arrListLines;
}

---

In your code, you pass an array (which could be huge, or small, you don't know) by value. You then declare a new ArrayList as well as a streamreader and a string. You Then return the entire Array (which could be friggin huge).

That isn't very efficient.

Take a look at this:

Code:

---

private void fileContentToArrayList(string filePath, ref System.Collections.ArrayList arryList)
                {
                        try
                        {
                                using(System.IO.StreamReader fin = new System.IO.StreamReader(filePath, System.Text.Encoding.ASCII))
                                {
                                        while ((filePath = fin.ReadLine()) != null)
                                        {
                                                arryList.Add(filePath);
                                        }
                                }
                        }
                        catch(Exception e)
                        {
                        System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox.Show(e.Message, "Failed reading file");
                        }
                }

---

Once the filePath string is used the first time, it will never be used again in that function, so just reuse it instead of re-declaring another string. I also pass an arraylist by reference. There is no sence in passing it by value, and then creating yet another arraylist (which is the same as having 2 arraylists in 1 function). Also, instead of returning a very large ArrayList, which could be time consuming, I modify it by reference so you won't experience a slow down when the function leaves. Then I put the streamreader declaration in a using statement. According to the MSDN, once the using statement is finished running, the streamreader will be immediately released from memory.