How to split string with ","

Question

I have string like this: "sometext1,text2 ","sometext, with commas","somenumbers","somenumbers"

How can I split them? I can not do split(','); bevause sometext1,text2  contains a comma. I Need to do something like Split('","'); but I dont know how to use double qoutation...

Answer 1

dim f as List(of string)
dim MyString as String() = "sometext1,text2 ","sometext, with commas","somenumbers","somenumbers"
for each str as string in MyString
f.Add(str)
next

---

Kenneth

Answer 2

hi,

string[] strArray = new string[] { "sometext1,text2 ", "sometext, with commas", "somenumbers", "somenumbers" };
foreach(string str in strArray )
  {
     //if u want string in a array then here is ur output
     //output here is - sometext1,text2
     MessageBox.Show(str);

     //if u want to split the string in a string then 
     string[] strSplitString = str.Split(',');
      for (int i = 0; i < strSplitString.Length; i++)
        {                    
             MessageBox.Show(strSplitString[i]);
        }
  }

---

Nagarjuna Dilip

Answer 3

Salve Gaius,

I suppose you're really looking for what is usually being refered to as the text-qualifier and the field-delimiter. That is, your field-delimiter is a comma, but that character can be contained within the fields themselves, hence the need for a text-qualifier (a double quote in this case).
So, if I got you right, the string you posted is actually a single string and you need to retrieve the stuff between double-quotes. If that's right, here's a very simplistic way of splitting this up:

      List<string> SplitUpString(string str)
      {
         string[] arrstrSeparators = new string[] { "\",\"" };
         string[] arrstrItems = str.Substring(1,str.Length-2).Split(arrstrSeparators, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries);

         return arrstrItems.ToList<string>();
      }

Taking the above, you could split up your string like this:

         string strTest = @"""sometext1,text2 "",""sometext, with commas"",""somenumbers"",""somenumbers""";
         List<string> lststrItems = SplitUpString(strTest);
         System.Text.StringBuilder sbMsg = new System.Text.StringBuilder();
         foreach (string str in lststrItems)
            sbMsg.Append(str + Environment.NewLine);
         MessageBox.Show("Items found:" + Environment.NewLine + sbMsg.ToString());

Note that this is a very quick & dirty approach - it will only work if a) all fields are qualified by a double quote and b) the first field starts resp. the last field ends with a double quote. If you need more flexibility (i.e. in the case some fields come without text-qualifiers), you'll find various helpers on the web if you google for something like "split string text-qualifier field-delimiter", i.e. this CodeProject article .

---

Cheers,
Olaf
http://blogs.intuidev.com