Splitting a string into chunks of a certain size

Question

Suppose I had a string:

string str = "1111222233334444"; 

How can I break this string into chunks of some size?

e.g., breaking this into sizes of 4 would return strings:

"1111"
"2222"
"3333"
"4444"

Answer 1

This should be much faster and more efficient than using LINQ or other approaches used here.

public static IEnumerable<string> Splice(this string s, int spliceLength)
{
    if (s == null)
        throw new ArgumentNullException("s");
    if (spliceLength < 1)
        throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException("spliceLength");

    if (s.Length == 0)
        yield break;
    var start = 0;
    for (var end = spliceLength; end < s.Length; end += spliceLength)
    {
        yield return s.Substring(start, spliceLength);
        start = end;
    }
    yield return s.Substring(start);
}

Answer 2

In a combination of dove+Konstatin's answers...

static IEnumerable<string> WholeChunks(string str, int chunkSize) {
    for (int i = 0; i < str.Length; i += chunkSize) 
        yield return str.Substring(i, chunkSize);
}

This will work for all strings that can be split into a whole number of chunks, and will throw an exception otherwise.

If you want to support strings of any length you could use the following code:

static IEnumerable<string> ChunksUpto(string str, int maxChunkSize) {
    for (int i = 0; i < str.Length; i += maxChunkSize) 
        yield return str.Substring(i, Math.Min(maxChunkSize, str.Length-i));
}

However, the the OP explicitly stated he does not need this; it's somewhat longer and harder to read, slightly slower. In the spirit of KISS and YAGNI, I'd go with the first option: it's probably the most efficient implementation possible, and it's very short, readable, and, importantly, throws an exception for nonconforming input.

Answer 3

List<string> SplitString(int chunk, string input)
{
    List<string> list = new List<string>();
    int cycles = input.Length / chunk;

    if (input.Length % chunk != 0)
        cycles++;

    for (int i = 0; i < cycles; i++)
    {
        try
        {
            list.Add(input.Substring(i * chunk, chunk));
        }
        catch
        {
            list.Add(input.Substring(i * chunk));
        }
    }
    return list;
}

Answer 4

Simple and short:

// this means match a space or not a space (anything) up to 4 characters
var lines = Regex.Matches(str, @"[\s\S]{0,4}").Cast<Match>().Select(x => x.Value);

Answer 5

Based around other posters answers, along with some samples of useage:

public static string FormatSortCode(string sortCode)
{
    return ChunkString(sortCode, 2, "-");
}
public static string FormatIBAN(string iban)
{
    return ChunkString(iban, 4, "  ");
}

private static string ChunkString(string str, int chunkSize, string separator)
{
    var b = new StringBuilder();
    var stringLength = str.Length;
    for (var i = 0; i < stringLength; i += chunkSize)
    {
        if (i + chunkSize > stringLength) chunkSize = stringLength - i;
        b.Append(str.Substring(i, chunkSize));
        if (i+chunkSize != stringLength)
            b.Append(separator);
    }
    return b.ToString();
}

Answer 6

Changed slightly to return parts whose size not equal to chunkSize

public static IEnumerable<string> Split(this string str, int chunkSize)
    {
        var splits = new List<string>();
        if (str.Length < chunkSize) { chunkSize = str.Length; }
        splits.AddRange(Enumerable.Range(0, str.Length / chunkSize).Select(i => str.Substring(i * chunkSize, chunkSize)));
        splits.Add(str.Length % chunkSize > 0 ? str.Substring((str.Length / chunkSize) * chunkSize, str.Length - ((str.Length / chunkSize) * chunkSize)) : string.Empty);
        return (IEnumerable<string>)splits;
    }