Assign a bunch of buttons each color and number. WPF

Question

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So I have this grid containing 5x5 buttons where I want to randomly generate one number(1-5) to each button, and randomly place one (of 5) color to each button.

Ex

[RED 1][BLUE 5][GREEN 2][RED 4][YELLOW 3]
[GREEN 1][YELLOW 5][Orange 3] and so on.....

Ok, so the question is, in which steps should I think? And are there some good methods to use in this case? I'm starting from scratch....

I appreciate any help!

---
EDIT

So there will only exist five buttons of one color, and to each color there are numbered 1-5.

Posted 4-Feb-13 8:05am

Member 9808042

Updated 4-Feb-13 8:12am

v2

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BC @ CV 4-Feb-13 15:13pm

sounds like a homework assignment.

Member 9808042 4-Feb-13 15:33pm

It's not. I'm not studying programming at all, just doing it in my free time =)) A game actually....I just want a push, cause right now I got no clue where to start.

BC @ CV 4-Feb-13 15:41pm

Well....use a random number generation function such as: this[^] to generate the number.

Then set button colors thusly: button1.BackColor = myArrayOfPossibleColors[num];

and text values like so: button2.Content = num;

Member 9808042 4-Feb-13 15:55pm

Thanks alot! As a beginner, I tend to overthink which makes it hard to see the whole picture. I just learned to break down the problems into minor parts.

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 4-Feb-13 15:44pm

What have you done so far?
—SA

Member 9808042 4-Feb-13 15:57pm

Hey SA, I've just created grid with row and column definitions to place all the buttons (25 of them) and some space. That's it, before going any further I just want to gather some information and tips.

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 4-Feb-13 16:24pm

And what's the problem?
—SA

Member 9808042 4-Feb-13 16:53pm

I just needed advice and tips. From the beginning, I somehow thought of doing two loops, one for the color and one for the numbers itself, storing them seperataly (I really don't know much). But Matt (below) gave me the idea to do it as pairs instead, and use rand for those permutations. I just really need more points of view before I do anything further.

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 4-Feb-13 17:04pm

OK, I gave you one tip in my comment to Solution 1, please see. And this solution + my tip should be enough. If it's not clear, please feel free to ask a follow-up question.
—SA

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Matt T Heffron · Accepted Answer · 2013-02-04T10:00:00

Solution 1

What you need is to generate a random permutation of 0-24, assigning one number for each of the buttons. Then just use number % 5 to assign the number and number / 5 to index into the color list.
To efficiently generate the random permutation try this:

C#

using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;

private Random Rand = new Random();  // OR use a fixed "seed" here for reproducability when testing
private List<int> RandPerm(int N)
{
  List<int> p = new List<int>(Enumerable.Range(0, N));
  for (int k = 2; k <= N; k++)
  {
    int r = (int)Math.Ceiling(k * Rand.NextDouble());
    --r;
    p[k - 1] = p[r];
    p[r] = k - 1;
  }
  return p;
}

Posted 4-Feb-13 10:00am

Matt T Heffron

Comments

Member 9808042 4-Feb-13 16:04pm

Permutation! I learned that from earlier years (discrete)...Great idea! But the code you wrote....will take me some time to understand haha..=D

I really appreciate your time. Thanks!

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 4-Feb-13 16:26pm

My 5, but important note: the buttons themselves should also be created in the loop in C# code, not in XAML. Only this way, OP could have an array Button[,] to work with.
—SA

Matt T Heffron 4-Feb-13 16:38pm

But in the code behind, OP could populate an array by referencing the buttons named in the XAML...

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 4-Feb-13 16:41pm

Yes, of course, but it would be ugly, unnatural. XAML is often abused, as well as designer. And attempt to replace code with "visual programming" often introduces a lot of manual repetitive work...
—SA

Matt T Heffron 4-Feb-13 16:50pm

As is usually the case, the "correct" way is "it depends" :)
Are the colors and numbers being set through WPF Data Binding (changing often)?
Data Binding in code is much messier than in XAML.
Will the layout be complicated? (OP already stated a "simple" Grid layout to start with.)
Etc...