c# - How to use LINQ with a 2 dimensional array

Question

I have a 2-dimensional byte array that looks something like this:

0 0 0 0 1

1 1 1 1 0

0 0 1 1 1

1 0 1 0 1

Each value in the array can only be 0 or 1. The above simplified example shows 4 rows with each row having 5 columns. I am trying to figure out how to use LINQ to return the index to the row that has the largest number of 1s set, which in the above example should return 1.

The following non LINQ C# code solves the problem:

static int GetMaxIndex(byte[,] TwoDArray)
{
   // This method finds the row with the greatest number of 1s set.
   //
   int NumRows = TwoDArray.GetLength(0);
   int NumCols = TwoDArray.GetLength(1);
   int RowCount, MaxRowCount = 0, MaxRowIndex = 0;
   //
   for (int LoopR = 0; LoopR < NumRows; LoopR++)
   {
      RowCount = 0;
      for (int LoopC = 0; LoopC < NumCols; LoopC++)
      {
         if (TwoDArray[LoopR, LoopC] != 0)
            RowCount++;
      }
      if (RowCount > MaxRowCount)
      {
         MaxRowCount = RowCount;
         MaxRowIndex = LoopR;
      }
   }
   return MaxRowIndex;
}

static void Main()
{
   byte[,] Array2D = new byte[4, 5] { { 0, 0, 0, 0, 1 }, { 1, 1, 1, 1, 0 }, { 0, 0, 1, 1, 1 }, { 1, 0, 1, 0, 1 } };
   int MaxInd = GetMaxIndex(Array2D);
   Console.WriteLine("MaxInd = {0}", MaxInd);
}

So, my questions are:

1. How can LINQ be used to solve this, and would using LINQ here be less efficient that using the non LINQ code above?
2. Is it possible to solve this problem with PLINQ? Or, would it be more efficient to use the Task Parallel Library (TPL) directly for the above code and split out the count of the number of 1s in each row to a separate thread, assuming that each row has at least 1,000 columns?

Answer 1

It's hard to work with multidimentional arrays with LINQ, but here's how you could do:

var arr = new [,] { { 0, 0, 0, 0, 1 }, { 1, 1, 1, 1, 0 }, { 0, 0, 1, 1, 1 }, { 1, 0, 1, 0, 1 } };

var data =
    Enumerable.Range(0, 4)
        .Select(
            row =>
                new
                {
                    index = row,
                    count = Enumerable.Range(0, 5).Select(col => arr[row, col]).Count(x => x == 1)
                })
        .OrderByDescending(x => x.count)
        .Select(x => x.index)
        .First();