2D array populating not working

Question

I'm trying to populate a 2D array with char's from a string I've read in. I'm having a problem with actually populating this 2D array. It keeps printing a 2D array bigger than what I've given it, and the number always seems to be 6 rather than the letters from the string.

I store the string in an ArrayList called tempArray.

Input strings: WUBDLAIUWBD LUBELUFBSLI SLUEFLISUEB

I instantiate a 2D array with columnlength = 11, and rowcount 3 epidemicArray = new int[rowCount][columnCount];

Array before I try to populate it:

00000000000
00000000000
00000000000

My code:

public static void updateArray(){
    //extract string from temp
    for (int i = 0; i < tempArray.size(); i++){
        String temp = tempArray.get(i);
        char[] charz = temp.toCharArray();
        for (int j = 0; j < charz.length; j++){
            for (int k = 0; k < rowCount; k++){
                for (int l = 0; l < columnCount; l++){
                    epidemicArray[k][l] = charz[j];
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

Output: Which I didn't expect

6666666666666666666666
6666666666666666666666
6666666666666666666666

Expected output: (2D array)

WUBDLAIUWBD
LUBELUFBSLI
SLUEFLISUEB

Thanks, this is really bugging me.

Answer 1

Change your code to this:

public static void updateArray(){
    //extract string from temp
    for (int i = 0; i < tempArray.size(); i++){
        String temp = tempArray.get(i);
        char[] charz = temp.toCharArray();
        for (int j = 0; j < charz.length; j++){ 
                epidemicArray[i][j] = charz[j];
        }
    }
}

This edit should work since the number of columns is the length of one of the string (same length for the 3 of them).

Here is my output

[EDIT]. @magna_nz, I used the following methods to print the array

public static void printRow(int rowNumber) {
    for (int i = 0; i < 11; i++) {
        System.out.print( epidemicArray[rowNumber][i] + " ");
    }
    System.out.println();
}

public static void main(String[] args) {

    updateArray();
    for (int i = 0; i < 3; i++) {
        printRow(i);
    }
}

This will print the numbers, but if you want to print characters you can change the above printRow method to something like:

public static void printRow(int rowNumber) {
    for (int i = 0; i < 11; i++) {
        System.out.print( (char)epidemicArray[rowNumber][i] + " ");
    }
    System.out.println();
}

And this will give you the following result:

Answer 2

You're overwriting your entire epidemicArray with the last value that charz[j] gets. Which is apparently 66. Actually you're overwriting that entire array with every value from charz and the last one won.