Retrieving comma seperated list

Question

Hi All,

I have a App.Config file that has a key and value.  The value is in this format:

'string1','string2','...','...'

I want to retrieve this value from the config file and then split each string.  Each string is surrounded by 2 inverted commas ' ' and each string is seperated by commas.

i.e. The result is a list of strings.

Any ideas?

Answer 1

Try

string old = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings[key];

string new = old.Replace("'","").split(',');

new is an string[] of split strings

Answer 2

Can your quoted strings contain commas?  If not, then Narotham's answer (after fixing syntax errors) would work.

However if your strings could contain commas or even escaped single-quotes (inverted commas?), you will need something more complex.

            // extract your value from key/value pair - test data follows
            string configFileValue = @"'abc','de\,f','gh\'i','klm','nop','qrs'";

            Regex rx = new Regex(@"(\'.*?\'(,|$))");
            Match mx = rx.Match(configFileValue);
            List<string> list = new List<string>();
            while(mx.Success)
            {
                list.Add(mx.Value);
                mx = mx.NextMatch();
            }
            string[] newString = list.ToArray();

// Test the array
            foreach (string val in newString)
                Console.WriteLine(val);

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Les Potter, Xalnix Corporation, Yet Another C# Blog