Trying to write a c# program that parses a text fi

Question

Im writting a program that parses a specific text file that has data in it that im going to prcess later. Each part is seperated by a header in square brackets i was wondering how i could put each segment into an array using the header as a name for the array. Below is an example of the begining of the text file. ive set up a form that lets you choose a file you want to process and ive also set up a way of processing it line by line using objReader.ReadLine in a loop

[Params]
Version=106
Monitor=34
SMode=111111100
Date=20090725
StartTime=13:56:44.0
Length=00:24:30.5
Interval=1
Upper1=0
Lower1=0
Upper2=0
Lower2=0
Upper3=0
Lower3=0
Timer1=00:00:00.0
Timer2=00:00:00.0
Timer3=00:00:00.0
ActiveLimit=0
MaxHR=180
RestHR=70
StartDelay=0
VO2max=51
Weight=0

[Note]
TT Warm Up

[IntTimes]
00:24:30.5  140 83  154 174
0   0   0   41  112 33
0   0   0   0   0
0   12080   0   280 0   0
0   0   0   0   0   0

[IntNotes]

[ExtraData]

[Summary-123]
1470    0   1470    0   0   0
180 0   0   70
1470    0   1470    0   0   0
180 0   0   70
0   0   0   0   0   0
180 0   0   70
0   1470

[Summary-TH]
1470    0   1470    0   0   0
180 0   0   70
0   1470

[HRZones]
180
162
144
126
108
90
0
0
0
0
0  

Answer 1

I'd parse it into a dictionary:

    Dictionary<string, List<string>> d = new Dictionary<string, List<string>>();

    using (StreamReader reader = new StreamReader("filename"))
    {
        string token = null;
        string line;
        while ((line = reader.ReadLine()) != null)
        {
            if (line.StartsWith("["))
                d[token] = new List<string>();
            else
                d[token].Add(line);
        }
    }

The above approach will also append data lines if you have duplicate tokens.

Answer 2

You could use a pattern something like this.

List<String> paramsList;
List<String> noteList;
List<String> tempList;

while (line = objReader.ReadLine()) {
    if (line.StartsWith("[")) {

        // start new array
        if (line.Equals("[Params]"))
            tempList = paramsList = new List<String>();
        else if (line.Equals("[Note]"))
            tempList = noteList = new List<String>();

        // etc.

    } else if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(line)) {

        // ignore, end of array

    } else {

        // add element to array
        tempList.Add(line);

    }
}

// now use paramsList, noteList, etc. as needed

I'm not quite sure how you mean to use the header as a name for the array. Are the headers always the same for all of the files? You can't dynamically allocate the name of a variable based on a string, nor would you want to if you need to use it in later processing.

Answer 3

Since this file format goes beyond a normal INI file (see comment by David Yaw in Nicholas Carey's answer) I'd use a proper parser created by a parser generator. My tool of choice is the GOLD Parser Builder, but any other parser generator may do just as well.