Based on the code I provided I would like to explode a string into two. The code is working but only if SearchQuery contains two phrases.
Private Sub SearchTxt_PreviewKeyDown(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.PreviewKeyDownEventArgs) Handles SearchTxt.PreviewKeyDown
Dim SearchQuery As String = SearchTxt.Text
Dim MyString As System.String
MyString = SearchQuery
Dim OutPutArray() As System.String
OutPutArray = Split(MyString, " ", -1)
''MsgBox(OutPutArray(0)) - Working
MsgBox(OutPutArray(1)) ' error - Index was outside the bounds of the array.
end sub
An array is always zero based (every type of collection is), so OutPutArray(1) tries to access the second item not the first. If it contains only one you get the exception.
Instead you want: OutPutArray(0)
If you don't know if it contains two, check it:
Dim first As String = OutPutArray(0)
Dim second As String = Nothing
If OutPutArray.Length > 1 Then
second = OutPutArray(1)
End If
As an aside, i recommend to use .NET methods, so String.Split:
Dim OutPutArray As String() = MyString.Split() ' splits by white-spaces, tabs or newlines
or, if you only want to split by spaces:
Dim OutPutArray As String() = MyString.Split({" "}, StringSplitOptions.None)
Related
I would like to ask for your help regarding my problem. I want to create a module for my program where it would read .txt file, find a specific value and insert it to the text box.
As an example I have a text file called system.txt which contains single line text. The text is something like this:
[Name=John][Last Name=xxx_xxx][Address=xxxx][Age=22][Phone Number=8454845]
What i want to do is to get only the last name value "xxx_xxx" which every time can be different and insert it to my form's text box
Im totally new in programming, was looking for the other examples but couldnt find anything what would fit exactly to my situation.
Here is what i could write so far but i dont have any idea if there is any logic in my code:
Dim field As New List(Of String)
Private Sub readcrnFile()
For Each line In File.ReadAllLines(C:\test\test_1\db\update\network\system.txt)
For i = 1 To 3
If line.Contains("Last Name=" & i) Then
field.Add(line.Substring(line.IndexOf("=") + 2))
End If
Next
Next
End Sub
Im
You can get this down to a function with a single line of code:
Private Function readcrnFile(fileName As String) As IEnumerable(Of String)
Return File.ReadLines(fileName).Where(Function(line) RegEx.IsMatch(line, "[[[]Last Name=(?<LastName>[^]]+)]").Select(Function(line) RegEx.Match(line, exp).Groups("LastName").Value)
End Function
But for readability/maintainability and to avoid repeating the expression evaluation on each line I'd spread it out a bit:
Private Function readcrnFile(fileName As String) As IEnumerable(Of String)
Dim exp As New RegEx("[[[]Last Name=(?<LastName>[^]]+)]")
Return File.ReadLines(fileName).
Select(Function(line) exp.Match(line)).
Where(Function(m) m.Success).
Select(Function(m) m.Groups("LastName").Value)
End Function
See a simple example of the expression here:
https://dotnetfiddle.net/gJf3su
Dim strval As String = " [Name=John][Last Name=xxx_xxx][Address=xxxx][Age=22][Phone Number=8454845]"
Dim strline() As String = strval.Split(New String() {"[", "]"}, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries) _
.Where(Function(s) Not String.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(s)) _
.ToArray()
Dim lastnameArray() = strline(1).Split("=")
Dim lastname = lastnameArray(1).ToString()
Using your sample data...
I read the file and trim off the first and last bracket symbol. The small c following the the 2 strings tell the compiler that this is a Char. The braces enclosed an array of Char which is what the Trim method expects.
Next we split the file text into an array of strings with the .Split method. We need to use the overload that accepts a String. Although the docs show Split(String, StringSplitOptions), I could only get it to work with a string array with a single element. Split(String(), StringSplitOptions)
Then I looped through the string array called splits, checking for and element that starts with "Last Name=". As soon as we find it we return a substring that starts at position 10 (starts at zero).
If no match is found, an empty string is returned.
Private Function readcrnFile() As String
Dim LineInput = File.ReadAllText("system.txt").Trim({"["c, "]"c})
Dim splits = LineInput.Split({"]["}, StringSplitOptions.None)
For Each s In splits
If s.StartsWith("Last Name=") Then
Return s.Substring(10)
End If
Next
Return ""
End Function
Usage...
Private Sub Button1_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
TextBox1.Text = readcrnFile()
End Sub
You can easily split that line in an array of strings using as separators the [ and ] brackets and removing any empty string from the result.
Dim input As String = "[Name=John][Last Name=xxx_xxx][Address=xxxx][Age=22][Phone Number=8454845]"
Dim parts = input.Split(New Char() {"["c, "]"c}, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries)
At this point you have an array of strings and you can loop over it to find the entry that starts with the last name key, when you find it you can split at the = character and get the second element of the array
For Each p As String In parts
If p.StartsWith("Last Name") Then
Dim data = p.Split("="c)
field.Add(data(1))
Exit For
End If
Next
Of course, if you are sure that the second entry in each line is the Last Name entry then you can remove the loop and go directly for the entry
Dim data = parts(1).Split("="c)
A more sophisticated way to remove the for each loop with a single line is using some of the IEnumerable extensions available in the Linq namespace.
So, for example, the loop above could be replaced with
field.Add((parts.FirstOrDefault(Function(x) x.StartsWith("Last Name"))).Split("="c)(1))
As you can see, it is a lot more obscure and probably not a good way to do it anyway because there is no check on the eventuality that if the Last Name key is missing in the input string
You should first know the difference between ReadAllLines() and ReadLines().
Then, here's an example using only two simple string manipulation functions, String.IndexOf() and String.Substring():
Sub Main(args As String())
Dim entryMarker As String = "[Last Name="
Dim closingMarker As String = "]"
Dim FileName As String = "C:\test\test_1\db\update\network\system.txt"
Dim value As String = readcrnFile(entryMarker, closingMarker, FileName)
If Not IsNothing(value) Then
Console.WriteLine("value = " & value)
Else
Console.WriteLine("Entry not found")
End If
Console.Write("Press Enter to Quit...")
Console.ReadKey()
End Sub
Private Function readcrnFile(ByVal entry As String, ByVal closingMarker As String, ByVal fileName As String) As String
Dim entryIndex As Integer
Dim closingIndex As Integer
For Each line In File.ReadLines(fileName)
entryIndex = line.IndexOf(entry) ' see if the marker is in our line
If entryIndex <> -1 Then
closingIndex = line.IndexOf(closingMarker, entryIndex + entry.Length) ' find first "]" AFTER our entry marker
If closingIndex <> -1 Then
' calculate the starting position and length of the value after the entry marker
Dim startAt As Integer = entryIndex + entry.Length
Dim length As Integer = closingIndex - startAt
Return line.Substring(startAt, length)
End If
End If
Next
Return Nothing
End Function
so..
I have a txt file with hundreds of sentences or strings.
I also have 4 comboboxes with options that a user can select from and
each combobox is part of a different selection criteria. They may or may not use all the comboboxes.
When a user selects an option from any combobox I use a For..Next statement to run through the txt file and pick out all the strings that contain or match whatever the user selected. It then displays those strings for the user to see, so that if they wanted to they could further narrow down the search from that point by using the 3 remaining comboboxes making it easier to find what they want.
I can achieve this by using lots of IF statements within the for loop but is that the only way?
No, there are other ways. You can leverage LINQ to get rid of some of those if statements:
Private _lstLinesInFile As List(Of String) = New List(Of String)
Private Function AddClause(ByVal qryTarget As IEnumerable(Of String), ByVal strToken As String) As IEnumerable(Of String)
If Not String.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(strToken) Then
qryTarget = qryTarget.Where(Function(ByVal strLine As String) strLine.Contains(strToken))
End If
Return qryTarget
End Function
Public Sub YourEventHandler()
'Start Mock
Dim strComboBox1Value As String = "Test"
Dim strComboBox2Value As String = "Stack"
Dim strComboBox3Value As String = String.Empty
Dim strComboBox4Value As String = Nothing
'End Mock
If _lstLinesInFile.Count = 0 Then
'Only load from the file once.
_lstLinesInFile = IO.File.ReadAllLines("C:\Temp\Test.txt").ToList()
End If
Dim qryTarget As IEnumerable(Of String) = (From strTarget In _lstLinesInFile)
'Assumes you don't have to match tokens that are split by line breaks.
qryTarget = AddClause(qryTarget, strComboBox1Value)
qryTarget = AddClause(qryTarget, strComboBox2Value)
qryTarget = AddClause(qryTarget, strComboBox3Value)
qryTarget = AddClause(qryTarget, strComboBox4Value)
Dim lstResults As List(Of String) = qryTarget.ToList()
End Sub
Keep in mind this is case sensitive so you may want to throw in some .ToLower() calls in there:
qryTarget = qryTarget.Where(Function(ByVal strLine As String) strLine.ToLower().Contains(strToken.ToLower()))
I think a compound If statement is the simplest:
Dim strLines() As String = IO.File.ReadAllText(strFilename).Split(vbCrLf)
Dim strSearchTerm1 As String = "Foo"
Dim strSearchTerm2 As String = "Bar"
Dim strSearchTerm3 As String = "Two"
Dim strSearchTerm4 As String = ""
Dim lstOutput As New List(Of String)
For Each s As String In strLines
If s.Contains(strSearchTerm1) AndAlso
s.Contains(strSearchTerm2) AndAlso
s.Contains(strSearchTerm3) AndAlso
s.Contains(strSearchTerm4) Then
lstOutput.Add(s)
End If
Next
I am trying to retrive the value of the text between the first and second backslashes... but my coding skills have brought me this far and no futher.
Private Sub Button2_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Button2.Click
Dim TEST As String = "ONE\TWO\TRHREE\FOR\FIVE"
Dim splitted = TEST.Split("\"c)
Dim values = splitted.Skip(1).Take(splitted.Length - 2).ToArray()
MsgBox(values)
End Sub
Use regular expressions
Dim TEST as String = "ONE\TWO\TRHREE\FOR\FIVE"
Dim matches As MatchCollection = Regex.Matches(TEST, "\\(.|\n)*?\\", RegexOptions.IgnoreCase)
Now if you want those values to come out in message boxes
For Each ma As Match In matches
MsgBox(ma.ToString.Trim({"\"c}))
Next
This will get you both "TWO" and "FOR". If you want just "TWO" then matches(0) is all you need.
Alternatively, if you just want to get the matches into an array in one line, then have each value of the array in a single message box:
Dim values = Regex.Matches(TEST, "\\(.|\n)*?\\").Cast(Of Match)().[Select](Function(m) m.Value).ToArray()
MsgBox(String.Join(", ", values))
Use the Split function. It will split on a string and store the separated values in an array. This is the easiest of all the answers here and is probably the most correct way of doing this.
This is the VB way of doing it:
Dim s() As String = Split("ONE\TWO\TRHREE\FOR\FIVE", "\")
MessageBox.Show(s(1))
And this is the .NET way of doing it:
Dim mainString As String = "ONE\TWO\TRHREE\FOR\FIVE"
Dim s() As String = mainString.Split("\")
MessageBox.Show(s(1))
If you want "Two" as result, this should be the simplest approach:
Dim allToken As String() = "ONE\TWO\TRHREE\FOR\FIVE".Split("\"c)
Dim relevantPart = allToken.Skip(1).Take(1)
Dim result As String = String.Concat(relevantPart) ' "Two"
If you don't want a single string but a String() use ToArray:
Dim result As String() = relevantPart.ToArray()
Side-Note: you can't output an array directly, you could use String.Join:
MsgBox(String.Join(", ", result)) ' f.e. comma separated
I'm beginner with VB.net.
How do I read indexes for certain character in a string? I read an barcode and I get string like this one:
3XXX123456-C-AA123456TY-667
From that code I should read indexes for character "-" so I can cut the string in parts later in the code.
For example code above:
3456-C
6TY-667
The length of the string can change (+/- 3 characters). Also the places and count of the hyphens may vary.
So, I'm looking for code which gives me count and position of the hyphens.
Thanks in advance!
Use the String.Splt method.
'a test string
Dim BCstring As String = "3XXX123456-C-AA123456TY-667"
'split the string, removing the hyphens
Dim BCflds() As String = BCstring.Split({"-"c}, StringSplitOptions.None)
'number of hyphens in the string
Dim hyphCT As Integer = BCflds.Length - 1
'look in the debuggers immediate window
Debug.WriteLine(BCstring)
'show each field
For Each s As String In BCflds
Debug.WriteLine(String.Format("{0,5} {1}", s.Length, s))
Next
'or
Debug.WriteLine(BCstring)
For idx As Integer = 0 To hyphCT
Debug.WriteLine(String.Format("{0,5} {1}", BCflds(idx).Length, BCflds(idx)))
Next
If all you need are the parts between hyphens then as suggested by dbasnett use the split method for strings. If by chance you need to know the index positions of the hyphens you can use the first example using Lambda to get the positions which in turn the count give you how many hyphens were located in the string.
When first starting out with .NET it's a good idea to explore the various classes for strings and numerics as there are so many things that some might not expect to find that makes coding easier.
Dim barCode As String = "3XXX123456-C-AA123456TY-667"
Dim items = barCode _
.Select(Function(c, i) New With {.Character = c, .Index = i}) _
.Where(Function(item) item.Character = "-"c) _
.ToList
Dim hyphenCount As Integer = items.Count
Console.WriteLine("hyphen count is {0}", hyphenCount)
Console.WriteLine("Indices")
For Each item In items
Console.WriteLine(" {0}", item.Index)
Next
Console.WriteLine()
Console.WriteLine("Using split")
Dim barCodeParts As String() = barCode.Split("-"c)
For Each code As String In barCodeParts
Console.WriteLine(code)
Next
Here is an example that'll split your string and allow you to parse through the values.
Private Sub TestSplits2Button_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles TestSplits2Button.Click
Try
Dim testString As String = "3XXX123456-C-AA123456TY-667"
Dim vals() As String = testString.Split(Convert.ToChar("-"))
Dim numberOfValues As Integer = vals.GetUpperBound(0)
For Each testVal As String In vals
Debug.Print(testVal)
Next
Catch ex As Exception
MessageBox.Show(String.Concat("An error occurred: ", ex.Message))
End Try
End Sub
I am using the following code to split a string and retrieve them:
Private Sub Button1_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs)
Handles Button1.Click
Dim s As String = "a,bc,def,ghij,klmno"
Dim parts As String() = s.Split(New Char() {","c})
Dim part As String
For Each part In parts
MsgBox(part(0))
Next
End Sub
But the message box shows only the first character in each splitted string (a,b,d,g,k).
I want to show only the first word, what am I doing wrong?
It is not clear from your question, but if you want only the first word in your array of strings then no need to loop over it
Dim firstWord = parts(0)
Console.WriteLine(firstWord) ' Should print `a` from your text sample
' or simply
Console.WriteLine(parts(0))
' and the second word is
Console.WriteLine(parts(1)) ' prints `bc`
You already have each part - just display it:
For Each part In parts
MsgBox(part)
Next
part(0) will return the first item in the character collection that is a string.
If you want a specific index into the returned string array (as suggested by your comment), just access it directly:
Dim parts As String() = s.Split(New Char() {","c})
Dim firstPart As String = parts(0)
Dim thirdPart As String = parts(2)
You need to show part not part(0)
For Each part In parts
MsgBox(part)
Next