Convert and update continuous serial port communication from Arduino to an integer array in Visual Studios (C#)

Question

I am currently reading data coming in continuously from an i2c sensor connected to an Arduino and capturing the data successfully in Visual Studios. The sensor is getting 4 different X, Y values and then sends them via Serial.Print in the format of:

X1,Y1,X2,Y2,X3,Y3,X4,Y4 (Where X1 - X4 and Y1 - Y4 are values that range betwen 0-1023 ie, 1023,1023,1023,1023,1023,1023,1023,1023) which is then followed up with a Serial.println("") command. This whole process is repeated continuously until turned off. Arduino code:

for (i=0;i<16;i++) { data_buf[i]=0; }
    i=0;
      while(Wire.available() && i < 16) {
        data_buf[i] = Wire.read();
        i++;
      }

     Ix[0] = data_buf[1];
     Iy[0] = data_buf[2];
     s = data_buf[3];
     //Ix[0] += (s & 0x30) <<4;
     Ix[0] = data_buf[1] | ((data_buf[3] >> 4) & 0x03) << 8;
     Iy[0] = data_buf[2] | ((data_buf[3] >> 6) & 0x03) << 8;
     //Ix[0] = Ix[0] / test;

     Ix[1] = data_buf[4];
     Iy[1] = data_buf[5];
     s = data_buf[6];
     Ix[1] += (s & 0x30) <<4;
     Iy[1] += (s & 0xC0) <<2;

     Ix[2] = data_buf[7];
     Iy[2] = data_buf[8];
     s = data_buf[9];
     Ix[2] += (s & 0x30) <<4;
     Iy[2] += (s & 0xC0) <<2;

     Ix[3] = data_buf[10];
     Iy[3] = data_buf[11];
     s = data_buf[12];
     Ix[3] += (s & 0x30) <<4;
     Iy[3] += (s & 0xC0) <<2;

      for(i=0; i<4; i++)
{
if (Ix[i] < 1000)
Serial.print("");
if (Ix[i] < 100)
Serial.print("");
if (Ix[i] < 10)
Serial.print("");
    Serial.print( int(Ix[i]) );
Serial.print(",");
if (Iy[i] < 1000)
Serial.print("");
if (Iy[i] < 100)
Serial.print("");
if (Iy[i] < 10)
Serial.print("");
Serial.print( int(Iy[i]) );
if (i<3)
Serial.print(",");
}


Serial.println("");
delay(15);
}

What I'm have problems with, is converting those values from within Visual Studios so that I can pass on the data as individual integer values. What I have now:

void _spManager_NewSerialDataRecieved(object sender, SerialDataEventArgs e)
        {
            if (this.InvokeRequired)
            {
                // Using this.Invoke causes deadlock when closing serial port, and BeginInvoke is good                      practice anyway.
                this.BeginInvoke(new EventHandler<SerialDataEventArgs>(_spManager_NewSerialDataRecieved), new object[] { sender, e });
                return;
            }

            int maxTextLength = 1000; // maximum text length in text box
            if (tbData.TextLength > maxTextLength)
                tbData.Text = tbData.Text.Remove(0, tbData.TextLength - maxTextLength);

            // This application is connected to a Arduino sending ASCCI characters, so data is converted                to text
            string Rawstr = Encoding.ASCII.GetString(e.Data);

            //Get values that are between the ',' from e.Data and store them in our new array
            string[] str = Rawstr.Split(',');

            //Convert str array into new int[] array (or similar) I've tried multiple things with no success
              ??????
             //This results in a "Input string was not in a correct format" error.
            int xx = Convert.ToInt32(str[0]);

            tbData.AppendText(Rawstr);
            tbData.ScrollToCaret();

        }

This is where I am currently stuck. I believe I have an issue where pretty much an infant number of values are going into the string[] str because I don't have a limit on it before it starts to put new values into/and replacing the string values already in it.

Any guidance is appreciated.

Answer 1

You can use Linq.
First split on , , skip the empty and whitespace characters, then trim of the first character (X or Y) and convert the remaining part to an integer.

String Rawstr = "x1,y1,x2,y2," + Environment.NewLine;
Int32[] integers = Rawstr.Split(new [] { ',' }, StringSplitOptions.None).Where(s => !String.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(s)).Select(s => Convert.ToInt32(s.Substring(1))).ToArray();

For "x1,y1,x2,y2," you get an integer array containing [1,1,2,2] .