How to avoid a switch block with 300 cases?

Question

I am trying to add 300 Challenges into my program, but only display them if the CompletionValue.IsChecked = false;

If you were creating this program. How would you store the Challenges? I am using a switch but having 300 cases is overkill, is there a better way?

Any recommendation on to improve the code is well appreciated. I am somewhat new to this.

    Random rand = new Random();
    // Constructor
    public MainPage()
    {
        InitializeComponent();
        AnswerValue.Visibility = Visibility.Collapsed;
        Load();

    }


    private void Load()
    {
        int random = rand.Next(1, 4);
        switch (random)
        {
            case 1:
                Challenge1();
                break;
            case 2:
                Challenge2();
                break;
            case 3:
                Challenge3();
                break;
        }
    }

    private void Challenge1()
    {
        DifficultyValue.Text = "20%";
        CompletionValue.IsChecked = false;
        TitleValue.Text = "Chicken or Egg?";
        QuestionValue.Text = "Can you answer the ancient question: Which came first the chicken of the egg?";
        bmp.UriSource = new Uri("Images/Challenge1.png", UriKind.Relative);
        ImageValue.Source = bmp;
        ImageValue.Visibility = Visibility.Visible;
        ResourceValue.Text = "Resource: Brain Games";
        AnswerValue.Text = "The Egg. According to paleontologists, reptiles and dinosaurs existed long before birds and chickens.  Fossilized eggs dating back on hundred millions years have been uncovered. Thus it can be said that eggs came before chickens.";

    }

    private void Challenge2()
    {
        DifficultyValue.Text = "25%";
        CompletionValue.IsChecked = false;
        TitleValue.Text = "Halving Seven";
        QuestionValue.Text = "Can you prove that seven is half of twelve?";
        bmp.UriSource = new Uri("Images/Challenge2.png", UriKind.Relative);
        ImageValue.Source = bmp;
        ImageValue.Visibility = Visibility.Visible;
        ResourceValue.Text = "Resource: Yahoo Questions";
        AnswerValue.Text = "Roman numeral for 12 - XII \n Cut the roman numeral in half. you will get VII, which is 7.";

    }

    private void Challenge3()
    {
        DifficultyValue.Text = "25%";
        CompletionValue.IsChecked = false;
        TitleValue.Text = "Three-coin flip";
        QuestionValue.Text = "You ask a friend about probability, and he tells you the following: The odds of three tossed coins turning up all heads or all tails is one in two, that is, fifty-fifty. That’s because anytime you toss three coins, at least two must match, either two heads or two tails.  So that means the third coin—which is equally likely to be heads or tails—determines the odds.” Is your friend right? If not, what are the odds of three tossed coins turning up all heads or all tails?";
        bmp.UriSource = new Uri("Images/Challenge3.png", UriKind.Relative);
        ImageValue.Source = bmp;
        ImageValue.Visibility = Visibility.Visible;
        ResourceValue.Text = "Resource: Brain Games";
        AnswerValue.Text = "Answer will be available soon";
    }

Answer 1

Your challenges look awfully similar to each other, right? This is a case where you want to extract out a common data structure, and have each challenge represented as a piece of data.

With a uniform representation for your challenges, you set up the UI based on the challenge data for a particular challenge ID.

It is always possible to move your data into XML files, JSON files, or a database, but first see if the simple C# solution works for you:

// Note: This example is simplified for readability

// Here is the common data structure that can represent all challenges
private class Challenge
{
    public string Title { get; set; }
    public string Question { get; set; }
    public string ImagePath { get; set; }
}

// All of the challenges are defined right here, as simple data
private Challenge[] _allChallenges = new Challenge[]
{
    new Challenge
    {
        Title = "Chicken or Egg?",
        Question = "Can you answer the ancient question: Which came first the chicken of the egg?",
        ImagePath = "Images/Challenge1.png",
    },
    new Challenge
    {
        Title = "Halving Seven?",
        Question = "Can you prove that seven is half of twelve?",
        ImagePath = "Images/Challenge1.png",
    },
}

// Choosing challenges is as simple as indexing into the array
private void Load()
{
    int random = rand.Next(1, 4);
    Challenge chosenChallenge = _allChallenges[random];
    LoadChallenge(chosenChallenge);
}

// Setting up the UI for a challenge means extracting information from the data structure
private void LoadChallenge(Challenge chosenChallenge)
{
    TitleValue.Text = chosenChallenge.Title;
    QuestionValue.Text = chosenChallenge.Text;
    bmp.UriSource = new Uri(chosenChallenge.ImagePath, UriKind.Relative);
    ImageValue.Source = bmp;
    ImageValue.Visibility = Visibility.Visible;
}

You can consider this as a form of declarative programming. An important part of your program, the challenges themselves, have been converted from imperative statements (setting UI properties) into very simple data declarations.

By making this conversion, you can even check each challenge to make sure that all of the parts are filled out. Then you'll be sure that the title, question, resource, answer, etc. is set for each of your 300 challenges.