How to convert a string of key/value pairs to HashTable or Dictionary or? - vb.net

Question

In VB.NET, how can I convert the following string into some kind of key/value type such as a Hashtable, Dictionary, etc?
"Name=Fred;Birthday=19-June-1906;ID=12345"
I want to extract Birthday or ID without having to split the string into an array.
EDIT: I'd prefer not to split the string into an array in case the format of the string changes later. I don't have control over the string. What if someone switches the order around or adds another element?

Answer 1

I’m currently unable to test this, lacking a VB compiler, but the following solution should also work, and it has the advantage of not requiring an explicit loop. It uses the Linq method ToDictionary and two nested Split operations:
Dim s = "Name=Fred;Birthday=19-June-1906;ID=12345"
Dim d = s.Split(";"c).Select(Function (kvp) kvp.Split("="c)) _
.ToDictionary( _
Function (kvp) kvp(0), _
Function (kvp) kvp(1))
First, we split on the outer delimiter (i.e. the semi-colon). From the resulting array, we select by splitting again, this time on =. The resulting array of arrays is converted to a dictionary by specifying that the first item is to become the key and the second is to become the value (the identifier kvp stands for “key-value pair”).
Since I can’t check the exact VB syntax and the above may contain subtle errors, here is the equivalent C# code (tested for correctness):
var s = "Name=Fred;Birthday=19-June-1906;ID=12345";
var d = s.Split(';').Select(kvp => kvp.Split('='))
.ToDictionary(kvp => kvp[0], kvp => kvp[1]);

Answer 2

Not sure why you don't want to split it. If you're sure there won't be any extra = or ; then you could just do:
Dim s As String = "Name=Fred;Birthday=19-June-1906;ID=12345"
Dim d As New Dictionary(Of String, String)
For Each temp As String In s.Split(";"c)
Dim index As Int32 = temp.IndexOf("="c)
d.Add(temp.Substring(0, index), temp.Substring(index + 1))
Next
Which might not be beautiful, but is very easy to understand.

Answer 3

input.Split(";"c) returns an array of key/value:
{ "Name=Fred", "Birthday=19-June-1906" , "ID=12345" }
so pair.Split("="c) returns { "Name", "Fred" } etc

Answer 4

If you want an alternative to doing a String.Split; there is always Regular Expressions as an alternative:
Dim map As Dictionary(Of String, String) = New Dictionary(Of String, String)
Dim match As Match = Regex.Match("Name=Fred;Birthday=19-June-1906;ID=12345", "(?<Name>[^=]*)=(?<Value>[^;]*);?")
While (match.Success)
map.Add(match.Groups("Name").Value, match.Groups("Value").Value)
match = match.NextMatch()
End While
The regular expression itself could be beefed up to better handle whitespace between key/value's and pair's but you hopefully get the idea. This should only pass through the string once to build up a string dictionary of keys and values.

Answer 5

Dim persSeparator as string=";"
Dim keyValSeparator as string="=";
Dim allPersons As New Dictionary(Of String, Person)
Dim str As String = "Name=Fred;Birthday=19-June-1906;ID=12345"
Dim parts As New List(Of String)(str.Split(persSeparator.ToCharArray)) 'why dont want you to split this string??
Dim person As New Person
For Each part As String In parts
Dim keyValue() As String = part.Split(keyValSeparator.toCharArray())
Select Case keyValue(0).ToUpper
Case "ID"
person.ID = keyValue(1)
Case "NAME"
person.Name = keyValue(1)
Case "BIRTHDAY"
person.BirthDay= keyValue(1)
End Select
Next
If Not allPersons.ContainsKey(person.ID) Then
allPersons.Add(person.ID, person)
End If
Public Class Person
Private _name As String
Private _birthday As String
Private _id As String = String.Empty
Public Sub New()
End Sub
Public Sub New(ByVal id As String)
Me._id = id
End Sub
Public Sub New(ByVal id As String, ByVal name As String)
Me._id = id
Me._name = name
End Sub
Public Sub New(ByVal id As String, ByVal name As String, ByVal birthday As String)
Me._id = id
Me._name = name
Me._birthday = birthday
End Sub
Public Property ID() As String
Get
Return Me._id
End Get
Set(ByVal value As String)
Me._id = value
End Set
End Property
Public Property Name() As String
Get
Return Me._name
End Get
Set(ByVal value As String)
Me._name = value
End Set
End Property
Public Property BirthDay() As String
Get
Return Me._birthday
End Get
Set(ByVal value As String)
Me._birthday = value
End Set
End Property
Public Overrides Function Equals(ByVal obj As Object) As Boolean
If TypeOf obj Is Person AndAlso Not obj Is Nothing Then
Return String.Compare(Me._id, DirectCast(obj, Person).ID) = 0
Else : Return False
End If
End Function
End Class

Answer 6

If you were just wanting to extract the birthday and ID from the string and place as a value pair in some sort of dictionary, for simplicity I would use regular expressions and then a generic dictionary (of string, valuepair structure). Something like this:
Imports System.Text.RegularExpressions
Imports System.Collections.Generic
Sub Main()
Dim Person As New Dictionary(Of String, ValuePair)
Dim s As String = "Name=Fred;Birthday=19-June-1906;ID=12"
Dim r As Regex = New Regex("Name=(.*);Birthday=(.*);ID=(.*$)")
Dim m As Match = r.Match(s)
Person.Add(CStr(m.Groups(1).Value), _
New ValuePair(CDate(m.Groups(2).Value), CInt(m.Groups(3).Value)))
Console.WriteLine(Person("Fred").Birthday.ToString)
Console.WriteLine(Person("Fred").ID.ToString)
Console.Read()
End Sub
Friend Structure ValuePair
Private _birthday As Date
Private _ID As Int32
Public ReadOnly Property ID() As Int32
Get
Return _ID
End Get
End Property
Public ReadOnly Property Birthday() As Date
Get
Return _birthday
End Get
End Property
Sub New(ByVal Birthday As Date, ByVal ID As Int32)
_birthday = Birthday
_ID = ID
End Sub
End Structure