split string with a start and end character

Question

I need to split a string with a "variable sequence"..

For example, I have this string :

string myString="|1 Test 1|This my first line.|2 Test 2|This is my second line";

I need to get an array of strings with :

This is my first line
This is my second line.

And in the same time, the best of the best would be to get this:
|1 Test1|
This is my first line
|2 Test2|
This is my second line.

Any help?

Answer 1

You could use a regular expression to split the string eg

string str = "|1 Test 1|This is my first line.|2 Test 2|This is my second line.";
var pattern = @"(\|(?:.*?)\|)";
foreach (var m in System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.Split(str, pattern))
{
    Console.WriteLine(m);
}

Just discard the first entry (as it will be blank)

Answer 2

string.Split with | as parameter and for the substrings if string.StartsWith a number and string.EndsWidth a number add | to start and end. is that helpful enough?

Answer 3

string[] myStrings = myString.Split('|');

This will give you a 4 element array consisting of:

1 Test 1
This is my first line.
2 Test 2
This is my second line.

From there, I think you'll be forced to iterate through the elements of the array and determine the proper course of action for the element that follows based on the contents of the current element.

Answer 4

Using LINQ you can do it like this:

public IEnumerable<string> GetLines(string input)
{
    foreach (var line in input.Split(new [] {'|' }, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries))
    {
        if (Char.IsDigit(line[0]) && Char.IsDigit(line[line.Length - 1]))
            yield return "|" + line + "|";

        yield return line;
    }
}

Answer 5

string myString = "|1 Test 1|This my first line.|2 Test 2|This is my second line";
            string[] mainArray = myString.Split('|');
            String str = "";
            List<string> firstList = new List<string>();
            List<string> secondList = new List<string>();
            for (int i = 1; i < mainArray.Length; i++)
            {
                if ((i % 2) == 0)
                {
                    str += "\n|" + mainArray[i];
                    firstList.Add(mainArray[i]);
                }
                else
                {
                    str += "\n|" + mainArray[i] + "|";
                    secondList.Add(mainArray[i]);
                }
            }

Answer 6

Split the string with '|' and add them in manually seems like the best strategy.

        string s = "|test1|This is a string|test2|this is a string";
        string[] tokens = s.Split(new char[] { '|' });

        string x = "";

        for (int i = 0; i < tokens.Length; i++)
        {
            if (i % 2 == 0 && tokens[i].Length > 0)
            {
                x += "\n" + tokens[i] + "\n";

            }
            else if(tokens[i].Length > 0)
            {
                x += "|" + tokens[i] + "|";
            }
        }