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shaair
shaair

Reputation: 985

Split function in vb.net

I am little bit confuse in Split function in Vb.Net. 

If hdnDetails.Value.Split("|").Length = 0 Then
         lblMsg.Text="Error"
End If

This statement is always true even hdnDetails.Value="". Split function returning length 1 always. What is the solution to get 0 length?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 971

Answers (1)

Tim Schmelter
Tim Schmelter

Reputation: 460380

String.Split will never return an array with Length = 0 (with this overload). MSDN:

If this instance does not contain any of the characters in separator, the returned array consists of a single element that contains this instance.

So you should use String.Contains if you want to check if the string contains a char:

If Not hdnDetails.Value.Contains("|") Then
    lblMsg.Text="Error"
Else
    Dim array = hdnDetails.Value.Split("|")
    ' Do something with this array if you need it
End If

You should note that checking if the array length is 1 can also be wrong if you want to know whether the string contained the separator or not. The array length can even be 0 if you use the String.Split overload that takes a StringSplitOptions argument.

Consider the string contains only the separator so it's "|" and you pass StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries, then the resulting array will have a length of 0.

If you pass StringSplitOptions.None you will get an array with length of 2: two empty strings.

Upvotes: 3

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