C# Creating an array of arrays

I'm trying to create an array of arrays that will be using repeated data, something like below:

int[] list1 = new int[4] { 1, 2, 3, 4 };
int[] list2 = new int[4] { 5, 6, 7, 8 };
int[] list3 = new int[4] { 1, 3, 2, 1 };
int[] list4 = new int[4] { 5, 4, 3, 2 };

int[,] lists = new int[4, 4] {  list1 ,  list2 ,  list3 ,  list4  };

I can't get it to work and so I'm wondering if I'm approaching this wrong.

What I'm attempting to do is create some sort of method to create a long list of the values so I can process them in a specific order, repeatedly. Something like,

int[,] lists = new int[90,4] { list1, list1, list3, list1, list2, (and so on)};

for (int i = 0; i < 90; ++i) {
   doStuff(lists[i]);
}

and have the arrays passed to doStuff() in order. Am I going about this entirely wrong, or am I missing something for creating the array of arrays?

Solution 1:

What you need to do is this:

int[] list1 = new int[4] { 1, 2, 3, 4};
int[] list2 = new int[4] { 5, 6, 7, 8};
int[] list3 = new int[4] { 1, 3, 2, 1 };
int[] list4 = new int[4] { 5, 4, 3, 2 };

int[][] lists = new int[][] {  list1 ,  list2 ,  list3 ,  list4  };

Another alternative would be to create a List<int[]> type:

List<int[]> data=new List<int[]>(){list1,list2,list3,list4};

Solution 2:

The problem is that you are attempting to define the elements in lists to multiple lists (not multiple ints as is defined). You should be defining lists like this.

int[,] list = new int[4,4] {
 {1,2,3,4},
 {5,6,7,8},
 {1,3,2,1},
 {5,4,3,2}};

You could also do

int[] list1 = new int[4] { 1, 2, 3, 4};
int[] list2 = new int[4] { 5, 6, 7, 8};
int[] list3 = new int[4] { 1, 3, 2, 1 };
int[] list4 = new int[4] { 5, 4, 3, 2 };

int[,] lists = new int[4,4] {
 {list1[0],list1[1],list1[2],list1[3]},
 {list2[0],list2[1],list2[2],list2[3]},
 etc...};