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 can be done in this way too

        string actualString = "1111222233334444";
        var listResult = new List<string>();
        int groupingLength = actualString.Length % 4;
        if (groupingLength > 0)
            listResult.Add(actualString.Substring(0, groupingLength));
        for (int i = groupingLength; i < actualString.Length; i += 4)
        {
            listResult.Add(actualString.Substring(i, 4));
        }

        foreach(var res in listResult)
        {
            Console.WriteLine(res);
        }
        Console.Read();

Answer 2

If necessary to split by few different length: For example you have date and time in specify format stringstrangeStr = "07092016090532"; 07092016090532 (Date:07.09.2016 Time: 09:05:32)

public static IEnumerable<string> SplitBy(this string str, int[] chunkLength)
    {
        if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(str)) throw new ArgumentException();
        int i = 0;
        for (int j = 0; j < chunkLength.Length; j++)
        {
            if (chunkLength[j] < 1) throw new ArgumentException();
            if (chunkLength[j] + i > str.Length)
            {
                chunkLength[j] = str.Length - i;
            }
            yield return str.Substring(i, chunkLength[j]);
            i += chunkLength[j];
        }
    }

using:

string[] dt = strangeStr.SplitBy(new int[] { 2, 2, 4, 2, 2, 2, 2 }).ToArray();

Answer 3

How's this for a one-liner?

List<string> result = new List<string>(Regex.Split(target, @"(?<=\G.{4})", RegexOptions.Singleline));

With this regex it doesn't matter if the last chunk is less than four characters, because it only ever looks at the characters behind it. I'm sure this isn't the most efficient solution, but I just had to toss it out there. :D

Answer 4

Six years later o_O

Just because

    public static IEnumerable<string> Split(this string str, int chunkSize, bool remainingInFront)
    {
        var count = (int) Math.Ceiling(str.Length/(double) chunkSize);
        Func<int, int> start = index => remainingInFront ? str.Length - (count - index)*chunkSize : index*chunkSize;
        Func<int, int> end = index => Math.Min(str.Length - Math.Max(start(index), 0), Math.Min(start(index) + chunkSize - Math.Max(start(index), 0), chunkSize));
        return Enumerable.Range(0, count).Select(i => str.Substring(Math.Max(start(i), 0),end(i)));
    }

or

    private static Func<bool, int, int, int, int, int> start = (remainingInFront, length, count, index, size) =>
        remainingInFront ? length - (count - index) * size : index * size;

    private static Func<bool, int, int, int, int, int, int> end = (remainingInFront, length, count, index, size, start) =>
        Math.Min(length - Math.Max(start, 0), Math.Min(start + size - Math.Max(start, 0), size));

    public static IEnumerable<string> Split(this string str, int chunkSize, bool remainingInFront)
    {
        var count = (int)Math.Ceiling(str.Length / (double)chunkSize);
        return Enumerable.Range(0, count).Select(i => str.Substring(
            Math.Max(start(remainingInFront, str.Length, count, i, chunkSize), 0),
            end(remainingInFront, str.Length, count, i, chunkSize, start(remainingInFront, str.Length, count, i, chunkSize))
        ));
    }

AFAIK all edge cases are handled.

Console.WriteLine(string.Join(" ", "abc".Split(2, false))); // ab c
Console.WriteLine(string.Join(" ", "abc".Split(2, true))); // a bc
Console.WriteLine(string.Join(" ", "a".Split(2, true))); // a
Console.WriteLine(string.Join(" ", "a".Split(2, false))); // a

Answer 5

    public static List<string> SplitByMaxLength(this string str)
    {
        List<string> splitString = new List<string>();

        for (int index = 0; index < str.Length; index += MaxLength)
        {
            splitString.Add(str.Substring(index, Math.Min(MaxLength, str.Length - index)));
        }

        return splitString;
    }

Answer 6

I recently had to write something that accomplishes this at work, so I thought I would post my solution to this problem. As an added bonus, the functionality of this solution provides a way to split the string in the opposite direction and it does correctly handle unicode characters as previously mentioned by Marvin Pinto above. So, here it is:

using System;
using Extensions;

namespace TestCSharp
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {    
            string asciiStr = "This is a string.";
            string unicodeStr = "これは文字列です。";

            string[] array1 = asciiStr.Split(4);
            string[] array2 = asciiStr.Split(-4);

            string[] array3 = asciiStr.Split(7);
            string[] array4 = asciiStr.Split(-7);

            string[] array5 = unicodeStr.Split(5);
            string[] array6 = unicodeStr.Split(-5);
        }
    }
}

namespace Extensions
{
    public static class StringExtensions
    {
        /// <summary>Returns a string array that contains the substrings in this string that are seperated a given fixed length.</summary>
        /// <param name="s">This string object.</param>
        /// <param name="length">Size of each substring.
        ///     <para>CASE: length &gt; 0 , RESULT: String is split from left to right.</para>
        ///     <para>CASE: length == 0 , RESULT: String is returned as the only entry in the array.</para>
        ///     <para>CASE: length &lt; 0 , RESULT: String is split from right to left.</para>
        /// </param>
        /// <returns>String array that has been split into substrings of equal length.</returns>
        /// <example>
        ///     <code>
        ///         string s = "1234567890";
        ///         string[] a = s.Split(4); // a == { "1234", "5678", "90" }
        ///     </code>
        /// </example>            
        public static string[] Split(this string s, int length)
        {
            System.Globalization.StringInfo str = new System.Globalization.StringInfo(s);

            int lengthAbs = Math.Abs(length);

            if (str == null || str.LengthInTextElements == 0 || lengthAbs == 0 || str.LengthInTextElements <= lengthAbs)
                return new string[] { str.ToString() };

            string[] array = new string[(str.LengthInTextElements % lengthAbs == 0 ? str.LengthInTextElements / lengthAbs: (str.LengthInTextElements / lengthAbs) + 1)];

            if (length > 0)
                for (int iStr = 0, iArray = 0; iStr < str.LengthInTextElements && iArray < array.Length; iStr += lengthAbs, iArray++)
                    array[iArray] = str.SubstringByTextElements(iStr, (str.LengthInTextElements - iStr < lengthAbs ? str.LengthInTextElements - iStr : lengthAbs));
            else // if (length < 0)
                for (int iStr = str.LengthInTextElements - 1, iArray = array.Length - 1; iStr >= 0 && iArray >= 0; iStr -= lengthAbs, iArray--)
                    array[iArray] = str.SubstringByTextElements((iStr - lengthAbs < 0 ? 0 : iStr - lengthAbs + 1), (iStr - lengthAbs < 0 ? iStr + 1 : lengthAbs));

            return array;
        }
    }
}

Also, here is an image link to the results of running this code: http://i.imgur.com/16Iih.png