Parsing out "and" and "or" from a string.

Question

User-548542357 posted

I am making a search page and would like to parse out "and" and "or" so I can build the SQL query. Basically in the search bar the user can search "dog or cat". I would then parse out the or and basically get 2 strings of 1.dog 2.cat and know to use the OR in the SQL statement. Whats the best way to go about this.

A code example would be nice as well.

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

User-837620913 posted

My VB is a little rusty, but you can probably figure out the pseudocode:

Dim search as string = "dog or cat"

search.Replace( "or", "") 'replace or with empty string

search.Replace( "and", "" ) 'replace and with empty string

Dim searchTerms() as string() = search.Split( " " )  'split the string based on the space character

'Note that you might have a couple spaces in the searchTerms array

Answer 2

User-548542357 posted

ok so im thinking of using contains to find the " or " and " and " so i kwnow how to build the SQL statement. Then use the split function to get the individual terms. Sound idea?

Answer 3

User-952121411 posted

 Here is a code example of how to do what you need; it works well for me:

Dim SearchString As String = "dog or cat"
Dim IsOrOperator, IsAndOperator As Boolean

'1st lets figure out if we are going to use an 'Or' or an 'And' for our SQL.
'If 'IndexOf' returns a value <> -1 that indicates it was found.
If SearchString.IndexOf("or", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase) <> -1 Then
     'Remove the operator and replace with a 'comma' to use to split the string below
      SearchString = SearchString.Replace(" or ", ",")
      IsOrOperator = True
ElseIf SearchString.ToLower.IndexOf("and", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase) <> -1 Then
       'Remove the operator and replace with a 'comma' to use to split the string below
        SearchString = SearchString.Replace(" and ", ",")
        IsAndOperator = True
End If

'Next split the string into individual keywords and place in a String array
Dim KeywordsList As String()
KeywordsList = SearchString.Split(",")

'...later on here is how to loop back through that array made above
Dim SearchWord As String = String.Empty
For Each Keyword As String In KeywordsList
     SearchWord = Keyword
Next

 

Hope this helps!