NGenerics Overview - The ObjectMatrix

Previous instalments

General Data Structures

HashList

Trees

Looking at tree structures will make your eyes bleed, so we’ll take a break to discuss one of the simpler data structures NGenerics offers - the ObjectMatrix . The ObjectMatrix is a representation of a 2-dimensional array of objects, like, for example, a game board :

Why not use a two-dimensional array in the first place? The ObjectMatrix offers the following useful operations at the time of writing:

Rows and Columns - formal definition of rows and columns - much better than having .Length scattered all over your code.
GetSubMatrix - enables the retrieval of a subset of the matrix.
InterchangeRows and InterchangeColumns - swap individual rows and columns.
GetRow and GetColumn - provides an easy way of retrieving individual rows and columns.
AddRow and AddColumn - add new rows and columns when you need more space.
DeleteRow and DeleteColumn - delete individual rows and columns.
Resize - resize the matrix to have any arbitrary column/row count.

Use it like you would use any two dimensional array :

C#
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var matrix = new ObjectMatrix(3, 3);
matrix[0, 0] = new Cross();
matrix[0, 1] = new Nought();
matrix[0, 2] = new Nought();
matrix[1, 0] = new Nought();
matrix[1, 1] = new Cross();
matrix[2, 2] = new Cross();

var enumerator = matrix.GetEnumerator();

while (enumerator.MoveNext())
{
    Console.WriteLine(enumerator.Current);
}