Issue in splitting an array of strings - vb.net

Question

I'm using webrequests to retrieve data in a .txt file that's on my dropbox using this "format".
SomeStuff
AnotherStuff
StillAnother
And i'm using this code to retrieve each line and read it:
Private Sub DataCheck()
Dim datarequest As HttpWebRequest = CType(HttpWebRequest.Create("https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com.txt"), HttpWebRequest)
Dim dataresponse As HttpWebResponse = CType(datarequest.GetResponse(), HttpWebResponse)
Dim sr2 As System.IO.StreamReader = New System.IO.StreamReader(dataresponse.GetResponseStream())
Dim datastring() As String = sr2.ReadToEnd().Split(CChar(Environment.NewLine))
If datastring(datastring.Length - 1) <> String.Empty Then
For Each individualdata In datastring
MessageBox.Show(individualdata)
Console.WriteLine(individualdata)
Next
End If
End Sub
The problem is, the output is this:
It always adds a line break (equal to " " as i see as first character on each but the first line string) after the first line like:
http://img203.imageshack.us/img203/1296/gejb.png
Why this happens? I tried also replacing the Environment.Newline with nothing like this:
Dim newstring as String = individualdata.Replace(Environment.Newline, String.Empty)
But the result was the same... what's the problem here? I tried with multiple newline strings and consts like vbnewline, all had the same result, any ideas?

Answer 1

You are not splitting by NewLine since you are cutting off Environment.NewLine which is a string with CChar. You just have to use the overload of String.Split that takes a String() and a StringSplitOption:
So instead of
Dim text = sr2.ReadToEnd()
Dim datastring() As String = text.Split(CChar(Environment.NewLine))
this
Dim datastring() As String = text.Split({Environment.NewLine}, StringSplitOptions.None)

Answer 2

I suspect that your file contains a mix of NewLine+CarriageReturn (vbCrLf) and a simple NewLine (vbLf).
If this is the case then you could create an array of the possible separators
Dim seps(2) as Char
seps(0) = CChar(vbLf)
seps(1) = CChar(vbCr)
Dim datastring() As String = sr2.ReadToEnd().Split(seps, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries)
The StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries is required because a vbCrLf creates an empty string between the two separators