CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#
cwsl26
cwsl26

Reputation: 33

Need help trimming text down in C#

I am using a flat text file as a database and so i need to be able to parse a .txt. The first thing i need to do is be able to pull out the exact string i'm looking for which i am confused about. The other answers i have seen to this the strings are the same every time... but i am looking for how to pull out a text for example between (beginning) and (end) where everything in between is a different length every time. any help? Here is an example of what i want

String line = sr.ReadToEnd();
// line to get all the text from my file
string whatIWant = stringEditor("beginning", "end", line);

string whatIWant(string first, string second, string whatToParse)
{
    //what do I put here to return
    //the text from line between first and second
    return whatever;
}

Upvotes: 0

Views: 119

Answers (3)

Marco Scabbiolo
Marco Scabbiolo

Reputation: 7459

Took the solution from this answer , on how to extend the native string class to get a string betwen to strings.

Create the method Between in all strings:

public static class Ext
{
    public static string Between(this string source, string left, string right)
    {
        return System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.Match(
                System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.Excape(source),
                string.Format("{0}(.*){1}", left, right))
            .Groups[1].Value;
    }
}

Then it gets really easy:

"beginning123456end".Between("beginning", "end")

123456

If you're always using beginning and end, let's go further:

public static class Ext
{
    public static string BetweenBeginningAndEnd(this string source)
    {
        return System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.Match(
                System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.Excape(source),
                string.Format("{0}(.*){1}", "beginning", "end"))
            .Groups[1].Value;
    }
}

"beginning123456end".BetweenBeginningAndEnd()

123456

EDIT: As @codenoire said, you'll also need to escape possible Regex characters

Upvotes: 2

nobody
nobody

Reputation: 11090

Get the index of beginning and the index of end, then use substring to get the the string using the indexes.

string whatIWant(string beginning, string end, string whatToParse)
{
      return whatToParse.Substring(whatToParse.IndexOf(beginning) + beginning.Length,whatToParse.IndexOf(end) -(whatToParse.IndexOf(beginning) + beginning.Length));
}

Upvotes: 1

Vishal Madhvani
Vishal Madhvani

Reputation: 442

You should use String.Substring()

string whatIWant(string first, string second, string whatToParse)
{
    return whatToParse.Substring(first.Length, whatToParse.Length - first.Length - second.Length);
}

DotNetFiddle: https://dotnetfiddle.net/h5lNIB

Upvotes: 3

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