Caesar Cipher Index Outside of the Bounds of the Array

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#1

Hi there, I am on the 12th step of the Caesar Cipher project, but I keep on having this error printed on the screen after I enter my input:

Unhandled exception. System.IndexOutOfRangeException: Index was outside the bounds of the array.
at CaesarCipher.Program.Main(String args) in /home/ccuser/workspace/csharp-caesar-cipher/Program.cs:line 26

I have looked over my code multiple times, and there doesn’t appear to be any noticeable problems with it, such as an incorrect indentation of any line of code. I have also struggled with whether to declare the variable I created on line 25 an int or a char, though neither declaration brings an end to the appearance of errors. Please examine my code below, I am open to advice on how to approach the issues I am facing:

using System;

namespace CaesarCipher
{
class Program
{
static void Main(string args)
{
char alphabet = new char {‘a’, ‘b’, ‘c’, ‘d’, ‘e’, ‘f’, ‘g’, ‘h’, ‘i’, ‘j’, ‘k’, ‘l’, ‘m’, ‘n’, ‘o’, ‘p’, ‘q’, ‘r’, ‘s’, ‘t’, ‘u’, ‘v’, ‘w’, ‘x’, ‘y’, ‘z’};

  // Ask for secret message:
  Console.WriteLine("Enter a secret message: ");
  string result = Console.ReadLine();

  char[] secretMessage = result.ToCharArray();
  char[] encryptedMessage = new char[secretMessage.Length];

  // Encrypt letters in message:
  for (int i = 0; i < secretMessage.Length; i++)
  {
    char positionMessage = secretMessage[i];
    int positionAlphabet = Array.IndexOf(alphabet, positionMessage);

    int valueThree = (positionAlphabet + 3) % alphabet.Length;
    int newEncryptedCharacter = alphabet[positionAlphabet];
    encryptedMessage[i] = alphabet[newEncryptedCharacter];
  }
  string readableMessage = String.Join("", encryptedMessage);
  Console.WriteLine(readableMessage);
}

}
}

#2 
// You wrote:
int newEncryptedCharacter = alphabet[positionAlphabet];

encryptedMessage[i] = alphabet[newEncryptedCharacter];

In your code, you are calculating valueThree but you don’t do anything with it.

I assume you meant to write alphabet[valueThree] instead of alphabet[positionAlphabet] in the first line.

Since alphabet is an array of characters, so alphabet[~some integer~] will give you the character at the index specified by the integer. With that in mind, the first line should probably be:

char newEncryptedCharacter = alphabet[valueThree];

Suppose the newEncryptedCharacter is 'k', then the second line

encryptedMessage[i] = alphabet[newEncryptedCharacter];

will be evaluated as

encryptedMessage[i] = alphabet['k'];

Converting the character 'k' to an integer index will result in a value greater than the bounds of your alphabet array.
The second line could be written as:

encryptedMessage[i] = newEncryptedCharacter;

So,

// You wrote:
int newEncryptedCharacter = alphabet[positionAlphabet];
encryptedMessage[i] = alphabet[newEncryptedCharacter];

// Consider changing it to:
char newEncryptedCharacter = alphabet[valueThree];
encryptedMessage[i] = newEncryptedCharacter;
#3

Thank you, your advice helped me solve the problem!