Checking a number of strings to check if they contain a value in an array

Question

I'm using selenium to gather a few blocks of <p>. I'm getting these blocks using a foreach.

I'm now wanting to check these blocks of <p> to see if they contain a value from my array of countries.

Here is my code:

               var countryText = driver.FindElements(By.XPath("/html/body/div[1]/div[2]/div[1]/section[2]/div/div/div[1]/div[1]/p"));

                foreach (IWebElement countries in countryText)
                {

                   string checkCountry = Country(countries.Text.ToString());

                    if (theCountry != "United States")
                    {
                        theCountry = checkCountry;
                        break;
                    }
                }

For some reason, it is always returning "United States" (the fallback value). My theory is because if there are 10 blocks of <p> the last block will always overwrite the value if any block beforehand did in fact include a country in my list. If that is the case, I tried to solve this using break; but that didn't work.

public static string Country(string address)
    {
 string countryReturn = "";
 string[] countryArray = {
"Afghanistan",
"Albania",
"Algeria",
"American Samoa",
"Andorra",
"Angola",
"Anguilla",
"Antarctica",
"Antigua and Barbuda",
"Argentina",
"Armenia",
"Aruba",
"Australia",
"Austria",
"Azerbaijan",
"Bahamas",
"Bahrain",
"Bangladesh",
"Barbados",
"Belarus",
"Belgium",
"Belize",
"Benin",
"Bermuda",
"Bhutan",
"Bolivia",
"Bosnia and Herzegovina",
"Botswana",
"Bouvet Island",
"Brazil",
"British Indian Ocean Territory",
"Brunei Darussalam",
"Bulgaria",
"Burkina Faso",
"Burundi",
"Cambodia",
"Cameroon",
"Canada",
"Cape Verde",
"Cayman Islands",
"Central African Republic",
"Chad",
"Chile",
"China",
"Christmas Island",
"Cocos (Keeling) Islands",
"Colombia",
"Comoros",
"Congo",
"Congo, the Democratic Republic of the",
"Cook Islands",
"Costa Rica",
"Cote D'Ivoire",
"Croatia",
"Cuba",
"Cyprus",
"Czech Republic",
"Denmark",
"Djibouti",
"Dominica",
"Dominican Republic",
"Ecuador",
"Egypt",
"El Salvador",
"Equatorial Guinea",
"Eritrea",
"Estonia",
"Ethiopia",
"Falkland Islands (Malvinas)",
"Faroe Islands",
"Fiji",
"Finland",
"France",
"French Guiana",
"French Polynesia",
"French Southern Territories",
"Gabon",
"Gambia",
"Georgia",
"Germany",
"Ghana",
"Gibraltar",
"Greece",
"Greenland",
"Grenada",
"Guadeloupe",
"Guam",
"Guatemala",
"Guinea",
"Guinea-Bissau",
"Guyana",
"Haiti",
"Heard Island and Mcdonald Islands",
"Holy See (Vatican City State)",
"Honduras",
"Hong Kong",
"Hungary",
"Iceland",
"India",
"Indonesia",
"Iran, Islamic Republic of",
"Iraq",
"Ireland",
"Israel",
"Italy",
"Jamaica",
"Japan",
"Jordan",
"Kazakhstan",
"Kenya",
"Kiribati",
"Korea, Democratic People's Republic of",
"Korea, Republic of",
"Kuwait",
"Kyrgyzstan",
"Lao People's Democratic Republic",
"Latvia",
"Lebanon",
"Lesotho",
"Liberia",
"Libyan Arab Jamahiriya",
"Liechtenstein",
"Lithuania",
"Luxembourg",
"Macao",
"Macedonia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of",
"Madagascar",
"Malawi",
"Malaysia",
"Maldives",
"Mali",
"Malta",
"Marshall Islands",
"Martinique",
"Mauritania",
"Mauritius",
"Mayotte",
"Mexico",
"Micronesia, Federated States of",
"Moldova, Republic of",
"Monaco",
"Mongolia",
"Montserrat",
"Morocco",
"Mozambique",
"Myanmar",
"Namibia",
"Nauru",
"Nepal",
"Netherlands",
"Netherlands Antilles",
"New Caledonia",
"New Zealand",
"Nicaragua",
"Niger",
"Nigeria",
"Niue",
"Norfolk Island",
"Northern Mariana Islands",
"Norway",
"Oman",
"Pakistan",
"Palau",
"Palestinian Territory, Occupied",
"Panama",
"Papua New Guinea",
"Paraguay",
"Peru",
"Philippines",
"Pitcairn",
"Poland",
"Portugal",
"Puerto Rico",
"Qatar",
"Reunion",
"Romania",
"Russian Federation",
"Rwanda",
"Saint Helena",
"Saint Kitts and Nevis",
"Saint Lucia",
"Saint Pierre and Miquelon",
"Saint Vincent and the Grenadines",
"Samoa",
"San Marino",
"Sao Tome and Principe",
"Saudi Arabia",
"Senegal",
"Serbia and Montenegro",
"Seychelles",
"Sierra Leone",
"Singapore",
"Slovakia",
"Slovenia",
"Solomon Islands",
"Somalia",
"South Africa",
"South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands",
"Spain",
"Sri Lanka",
"Sudan",
"Suriname",
"Svalbard and Jan Mayen",
"Swaziland",
"Sweden",
"Switzerland",
"Syrian Arab Republic",
"Taiwan, Province of China",
"Tajikistan",
"Tanzania, United Republic of",
"Thailand",
"Timor-Leste",
"Togo",
"Tokelau",
"Tonga",
"Trinidad and Tobago",
"Tunisia",
"Turkey",
"Turkmenistan",
"Turks and Caicos Islands",
"Tuvalu",
"Uganda",
"Ukraine",
"United Arab Emirates",
"United Kingdom",
"United States",
"United States Minor Outlying Islands",
"Uruguay",
"Uzbekistan",
"Vanuatu",
"Venezuela",
"Viet Nam",
"Virgin Islands, British",
"Virgin Islands, US",
"Wallis and Futuna",
"Western Sahara",
"Yemen",
"Zambia",
"Zimbabwe",
};

        for (int i = 0; i < countryArray.Length; i++)
        {
            if (address.Contains(countryArray[i]))
            {
                countryReturn = countryArray[i];
            }
            else
            {
                countryReturn = "United States";
            }
        }

            return countryReturn;

    }
}

Answer 1

I think what your searching for is in your static string Country

public static string Country(string address)
{
    string countryReturn = string.Empty;
    string[] countryArray = {"...", "..."};

    countryReturn = countryArray.FirstOrDefault(search => address.Contains(search));

    //if you dont want to have the possibility return a empty string do
    if(string.IsNullOrEmpty(countryReturn))
        countryReturn = "Your Fallback";

    return countryReturn;
}

I hope you see that you not need the return variabel in every case here

So the shortest way without check if the return is a empty string

public static string Country(string address)
{
    string[] countryArray = {"...", "..."};
    return countryArray.FirstOrDefault(search => address.Contains(search));
}

Answer 2

You can use (.Contains) method to check if a specific string is in your text or not

Answer 3

This is happening because your code is still running even after it has found the correct address in array

for (int i = 0; i < countryArray.Length; i++)
    {
        if (address.Contains(countryArray[i]))
        {
            countryReturn = countryArray[i];
            break;
        }
        else
        {
            countryReturn = "United States";
        }
    }

Put break in the If condition after you've assigned the value to return.

Or you could do something like

countryReturn = "United States";
for (int i = 0; i < countryArray.Length; i++)
        {
            if (address.ToUpper() == countryArray[i].ToUpper())
            {
                countryReturn = countryArray[i];
                break;
            }
        }

using break in second approach makes sure that once the record is found loop exit and does not run further Also I would like to suggest one more change instead of using contain you should use equal with .ToUpper() on both sides But this check for only one one entry and one <p> If you want to check multiple elements then you migth need to maintain a array of matched address