Nested Dyanmic Arrays...I Think

[MotoMan_Yz400]

I'm creating a simple media player. I'm having difficulty creating nested arrays of classes.

I would like to have "Band(0).Album(0).Song(0)" (corresponding to first song of first album of first band).

I currently have (stripped version):

 Class Song
   Public Title as String
   Public Path as String
 End Class

I have a sub to "for each" of the bands, "for each" album of each band and "for each" song in each album of each band. Now I'm having trouble grouping all this up into a nested array. So I can call each song using the method above. Can someone give me pointers?

[jmcilhinney]

You don't want arrays. You want collections. You need to define a class for each level and then each class will have a property that exposes a collection of the class for the level below, e.g.

Public Class Song
 
    Private _name As String
 
    Public Property Name() As String
        Get
            Return _name
        End Get
        Set(ByVal value As String)
            _name = value
        End Set
    End Property
 
End Class
 
 
Public Class Album
 
    Private _name As String
    Private _songs As New List(Of Song)
 
    Public Property Name() As String
        Get
            Return _name
        End Get
        Set(ByVal value As String)
            _name = value
        End Set
    End Property
 
    Public ReadOnly Property Songs() As List(Of Song)
        Get
            Return _songs
        End Get
    End Property
 
End Class
 
 
Public Class Artist
 
    Private _name As String
    Private _albums As New List(Of Album)
 
    Public Property Name() As String
        Get
            Return _name
        End Get
        Set(ByVal value As String)
            _name = value
        End Set
    End Property
 
    Public ReadOnly Property Albums() As List(Of Album)
        Get
            Return _albums
        End Get
    End Property
 
End Class

[MotoMan_Yz400]

Sorry for my ignorance on this one, but I'm not sure how to implement this. Here's my looping "search" routine:

    Sub MusicList()
        Dim MusicDirectory As New DirectoryInfo("d:\Music")
        Dim Bands As DirectoryInfo() = MusicDirectory.GetDirectories("*.*")
        Dim Band As DirectoryInfo
        For Each Band In Bands 'loop though folder containing Band Folders
            Dim BandDirectory As New DirectoryInfo(Band.FullName)
            Dim Albums As DirectoryInfo() = BandDirectory.GetDirectories("*.*")
            Dim Album As DirectoryInfo
            For Each Album In Albums 'Loop though Band Folder containing each album
                Dim AlbumDirectory As New DirectoryInfo(Album.FullName)
                Dim Songs As FileInfo() = AlbumDirectory.GetFiles("*.mp3")
                Dim song As FileInfo
                For Each song In Songs 'Loop through Album Folder containing Songs

                Next
            Next
        Next
    End Sub

I'm thinking it should create a new collection of "Songs" then add that to the current Album. Then once a collection of "Albums" has been made, add that to the collection for the current Band. Then once the Bands collection is made, add that to the Music Collection. But I just cant figure out how to nest the collection into the parent collection. Then be able to pull it out by "Music.Band(0).Album(0).Song(0).Title"

[MotoMan_Yz400]

I think I got it....Thank-you for your help!

[jmcilhinney]

When you create a new Album it already contains a collection of Songs. When you create a Song you add it to that collection. The same goes for Bands and Albums.

Dim bands As New List(Of Band)
Dim band As Band
Dim album As Album
Dim song As Song
 
For Each bandFolder In Directory.GetDirectories("D:\Music")
    band = New Band With {.Name = bandFolder}
    bands.Add(band)
 
    For Each albumFolder In Directory.GetDirectories(bandFolder)
        album = New Album With {.Name = albumFolder}
        band.Albums.Add(album)
 
        For Each songFile In Directory.GetFiles(albumFolder, "*.mp3")
            song = New Song With {.Name = Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(songFile)}
            album.Songs.Add(song)
        Next
    Next
Next