I've a filename:
NewReport-20140423_17255375-BSIQ-2wd28830-841c-4d30-95fd-a57a7aege412.zip
How can i split the above filename to 4 string groups.
NewReport
20140423_17255375
BSIQ
2wd28830-841c-4d30-95fd-a57a7aege412.zip
I tried:
string[] strFileTokens = filename.Split(new char[]{'-'} , StringSplitOptions.None);
but i'm not getting the above required four strings
You can specify the maximum number of substrings to return:
var strFileTokens = filename.Split(new[] { '-' }, 4, StringSplitOptions.None);
This will avoid splitting 2wd28830-841c-4d30-95fd-a57a7aege412.zip
into additional "pieces".
(Also, you can drop StringSplitOptions.None
since that's the default.)
Internally, it creates an array of substrings inside a loop, and it only loops the number of times you specify (or the maximum number of delimiters available in your string, whichever is less).
for (int i = 0; i < numActualReplaces && currIndex < Length; i++)
{
splitStrings[arrIndex++] = Substring(currIndex, sepList[i] - currIndex );
currIndex = sepList[i] + ((lengthList == null) ? 1 : lengthList[i]);
}
The variable numActualReplaces
is the minimum of either the count you specify, or the number of actual delimiters present in your string. (That way, if you specify a larger number like 30, but you only have 7 hyphens in the string, you won't get an exception. Actually, when you don't specify a number at all, it's actually using Int32.MaxValue
without you even realizing it.)
You updated your question to say you're using Silverlight, which doesn't have he overloads with Count
. That's really annoying, because under the hood the string
class still supports it. They just didn't provide a way to pass in your own value. It uses a hard-coded int.MaxValue
.
You could create your own method to bring back the desired functionality. I haven't tested this extension method out for all edge-cases, but it does work with your string.
public static class StringSplitExtension
{
public static string[] SplitByCount(this string input, char[] separator, int count)
{
if (count < 0)
throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException("count");
if (count == 0)
return new string[0];
var numberOfSeparators = input.Count(separator.Contains);
var numActualReplaces = Math.Min(count, numberOfSeparators + 1);
var splitString = new string[numActualReplaces];
var index = -1;
for (var i = 1; i <= numActualReplaces; i++)
{
var nextIndex = input.IndexOfAny(separator, index + 1);
if (nextIndex == -1 || i == numActualReplaces)
splitString[i - 1] = input.Substring(index + 1);
else
splitString[i - 1] = input.Substring(index + 1, nextIndex - index - 1);
index = nextIndex;
}
return splitString;
}
}
Make sure it's somewhere accessible to your UserControl, then call it like this:
var strFileTokens = filename.SplitByCount(new[] { '-' }, 4)
It works if you call the overload of Split
that takes a count
parameter:
var myArray = filename.Split(new char[] { '-' }, 4);
Since you're using silverlight as shown in your follow up question which doesn't have this overload i show a different approach. You could use LINQ's Skip
, Take
+ string.Join
to get one string
:
Your sample string:
string filename = "NewReport-20140423_17255375-BSIQ-2wd28830-841c-4d30-95fd-a57a7aege412.zip";
An array with all parts:
string[] allTokens = filename.Split(new[] { '-' }, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries);
var firstThreeToken = allTokens.Take(3); // first three
var lastTokens = allTokens.Skip(3); // the last part
string lastToken = string.Join("-", lastTokens); // last tokens as single string
string[] allToken = firstThreeToken.Concat(new[] { lastToken }).ToArray();
Result:
"NewReport"
"20140423_17255375"
"BSIQ"
"2wd28830-841c-4d30-95fd-a57a7aege412.zip"
You can use the Regex.Split
method which offers an overload that takes the count param.
Regex reg = new Regex( "-" );
string filename = "NewReport-20140423_17255375-BSIQ-2wd28830-841c-4d30-95fd-a57a7aege412.zip";
var parts = reg.Split( filename, 4 );
Obviously you are getting more parts because the last part of your file also contains "-".
An easy way to solve it is to join the remaining parts like this:
String lastpart = string.Join("-", names, 3, names.Length - 3);