How do I create a loop statement that finds the specific amount of characters in a string? - vb.net

Question

Beginner here, bear with me, I apologize in advance for any mistakes.
It's some homework i'm having a bit of trouble going about.
Overall goal: outputting the specific amount of characters in a string using a loop statement. Example being, user wants to find how many "I" is in "Why did the chicken cross the road?", the answer should be 2.
1) The form/gui has 1 MultiLine textbox and 1 button titled "Search"
2) User enters/copys/pastes text into the Textbox clicks "Search" button
3) Search button opens an InputBox where the user will type in what character(s) they want to search for in the Textbox then presses "Ok"
4) (where I really need help) Using a Loop Statement, The program searches and counts the amount of times the text entered into the Inputbox, appears in the text inside the MultiLine Textbox, then, displays the amount of times the character showed up in a "messagebox.show"
All I have so far
Private Sub Search_btn_Click(sender As System.Object, e As System.EventArgs) Handles Search_btn.Click
Dim counterInt As Integer = 0
Dim charInputStr As String
charInputStr = CStr(InputBox("Enter Search Characters", "Search"))

Answer 1

I would use String.IndexOf(string, int) method to get that. Simple example of concept:
Dim input As String = "Test input string for Test and Testing the Test"
Dim search As String = "Test"
Dim count As Integer = -1
Dim index As Integer = 0
Do
index = input.IndexOf(search, index) + 1
count += 1
Loop While index > 0
count is initialized with -1 because of do-while loop usage - it will be set to 0 even if there is no pattern occurrence in input string.

Answer 2

Try this Code
Dim input As String = "Test input string for Test and Testing the Test"
Dim search() As String = {"Te"}
MsgBox(input.Split(input.Split(search, StringSplitOptions.None), StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries).Count)

Answer 3

Concept: Increment the count until the input containing the particular search string. If it contains the search string then replace the first occurance with string.empty (In String.contains() , the search starts from its first index, that is 0)
Dim input As String = "Test input string for Test and Testing the Test"
Dim search As String = "T"
Dim count As Integer = 0
While input.Contains(search) : input = New Regex(search).Replace(input, String.Empty, 1) : count += 1 : End While
MsgBox(count)
Edit:
Another solution:
Dim Input As String = "Test input string for Test and Testing the Test"
Dim Search As String = "Test"
MsgBox((Input.Length - Input.Replace(Search, String.Empty).Length) / Search.Length)

Answer 4

try this code.... untested but i know my vb :)
Function lol(ByVal YourLine As String, ByVal YourSearch As String)
Dim num As Integer = 0
Dim y = YourLine.ToCharArray
Dim z = y.Count
Dim x = 0
Do
Dim l = y(x)
If l = YourSearch Then
num = num + 1
End If
x = x + 1
Loop While x < z
Return num
End Function
Its a function that uses its own counter... for every character in the string it will check if that character is one that you have set (YourSearch) and then it will return the number of items that it found. so in your case it would return 2 because there are two i's in your line.
Hope this helps!
EDIT:
This only works if you are searching for individual Characters not words

Answer 5

You can try with something like this:
Dim sText As String = TextBox1.Text
Dim searchChars() As Char = New Char() {"i"c, "a"c, "x"c}
Dim index, iCont As Integer
index = sText.IndexOfAny(searchChars)
While index >= 0 Then
iCont += 1
index = sText.IndexOfAny(searchChars, index + 1)
End While
Messagebox.Show("Characters found " & iCont & " times in text")
If you want to search for words and the times each one is appearing try this:
Dim text As String = TextBox1.Text
Dim wordsToSearch() As String = New String() {"Hello", "World", "foo"}
Dim words As New List(Of String)()
Dim findings As Dictionary(Of String, List(Of Integer))
'Dividing into words
words.AddRange(text.Split(New String() {" ", Environment.NewLine()}, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries))
findings = SearchWords(words, wordsToSearch)
Console.WriteLine("Number of 'foo': " & findings("foo").Count)
With this function used:
Private Function SearchWords(ByVal allWords As List(Of String), ByVal wordsToSearch() As String) As Dictionary(Of String, List(Of Integer))
Dim dResult As New Dictionary(Of String, List(Of Integer))()
Dim i As Integer = 0
For Each s As String In wordsToSearch
dResult.Add(s, New List(Of Integer))
While i >= 0 AndAlso i < allWords.Count
i = allWords.IndexOf(s, i)
If i >= 0 Then dResult(s).Add(i)
i += 1
End While
Next
Return dResult
End Function
You will have not only the number of occurances, but the index positions in the file, grouped easily in a Dictionary.