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How to create a sequence of strings between "start" and "end" strings [duplicate]

I have a question about iterate through the Alphabet.
I would like to have a loop that begins with "a" and ends with "z". After that, the loop begins "aa" and count to "az". after that begins with "ba" up to "bz" and so on...
Anybody know some solution?
Thanks
EDIT: I forgot that I give a char "a" to the function then the function must return b. if u give "bnc" then the function must return "bnd"

First effort, with just a-z then aa-zz
public static IEnumerable<string> GetExcelColumns()
{
for (char c = 'a'; c <= 'z'; c++)
{
yield return c.ToString();
}
char[] chars = new char[2];
for (char high = 'a'; high <= 'z'; high++)
{
chars[0] = high;
for (char low = 'a'; low <= 'z'; low++)
{
chars[1] = low;
yield return new string(chars);
}
}
}
Note that this will stop at 'zz'. Of course, there's some ugly duplication here in terms of the loops. Fortunately, that's easy to fix - and it can be even more flexible, too:
Second attempt: more flexible alphabet
private const string Alphabet = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz";
public static IEnumerable<string> GetExcelColumns()
{
return GetExcelColumns(Alphabet);
}
public static IEnumerable<string> GetExcelColumns(string alphabet)
{
foreach(char c in alphabet)
{
yield return c.ToString();
}
char[] chars = new char[2];
foreach(char high in alphabet)
{
chars[0] = high;
foreach(char low in alphabet)
{
chars[1] = low;
yield return new string(chars);
}
}
}
Now if you want to generate just a, b, c, d, aa, ab, ac, ad, ba, ... you'd call GetExcelColumns("abcd").
Third attempt (revised further) - infinite sequence
public static IEnumerable<string> GetExcelColumns(string alphabet)
{
int length = 0;
char[] chars = null;
int[] indexes = null;
while (true)
{
int position = length-1;
// Try to increment the least significant
// value.
while (position >= 0)
{
indexes[position]++;
if (indexes[position] == alphabet.Length)
{
for (int i=position; i < length; i++)
{
indexes[i] = 0;
chars[i] = alphabet[0];
}
position--;
}
else
{
chars[position] = alphabet[indexes[position]];
break;
}
}
// If we got all the way to the start of the array,
// we need an extra value
if (position == -1)
{
length++;
chars = new char[length];
indexes = new int[length];
for (int i=0; i < length; i++)
{
chars[i] = alphabet[0];
}
}
yield return new string(chars);
}
}
It's possible that it would be cleaner code using recursion, but it wouldn't be as efficient.
Note that if you want to stop at a certain point, you can just use LINQ:
var query = GetExcelColumns().TakeWhile(x => x != "zzz");
"Restarting" the iterator
To restart the iterator from a given point, you could indeed use SkipWhile as suggested by thesoftwarejedi. That's fairly inefficient, of course. If you're able to keep any state between call, you can just keep the iterator (for either solution):
using (IEnumerator<string> iterator = GetExcelColumns())
{
iterator.MoveNext();
string firstAttempt = iterator.Current;
if (someCondition)
{
iterator.MoveNext();
string secondAttempt = iterator.Current;
// etc
}
}
Alternatively, you may well be able to structure your code to use a foreach anyway, just breaking out on the first value you can actually use.

Edit: Made it do exactly as the OP's latest edit wants
This is the simplest solution, and tested:
static void Main(string[] args)
{
Console.WriteLine(GetNextBase26("a"));
Console.WriteLine(GetNextBase26("bnc"));
}
private static string GetNextBase26(string a)
{
return Base26Sequence().SkipWhile(x => x != a).Skip(1).First();
}
private static IEnumerable<string> Base26Sequence()
{
long i = 0L;
while (true)
yield return Base26Encode(i++);
}
private static char[] base26Chars = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz".ToCharArray();
private static string Base26Encode(Int64 value)
{
string returnValue = null;
do
{
returnValue = base26Chars[value % 26] + returnValue;
value /= 26;
} while (value-- != 0);
return returnValue;
}

The following populates a list with the required strings:
List<string> result = new List<string>();
for (char ch = 'a'; ch <= 'z'; ch++){
result.Add (ch.ToString());
}
for (char i = 'a'; i <= 'z'; i++)
{
for (char j = 'a'; j <= 'z'; j++)
{
result.Add (i.ToString() + j.ToString());
}
}

I know there are plenty of answers here, and one's been accepted, but IMO they all make it harder than it needs to be. I think the following is simpler and cleaner:
static string NextColumn(string column){
char[] c = column.ToCharArray();
for(int i = c.Length - 1; i >= 0; i--){
if(char.ToUpper(c[i]++) < 'Z')
break;
c[i] -= (char)26;
if(i == 0)
return "A" + new string(c);
}
return new string(c);
}
Note that this doesn't do any input validation. If you don't trust your callers, you should add an IsNullOrEmpty check at the beginning, and a c[i] >= 'A' && c[i] <= 'Z' || c[i] >= 'a' && c[i] <= 'z' check at the top of the loop. Or just leave it be and let it be GIGO.
You may also find use for these companion functions:
static string GetColumnName(int index){
StringBuilder txt = new StringBuilder();
txt.Append((char)('A' + index % 26));
//txt.Append((char)('A' + --index % 26));
while((index /= 26) > 0)
txt.Insert(0, (char)('A' + --index % 26));
return txt.ToString();
}
static int GetColumnIndex(string name){
int rtn = 0;
foreach(char c in name)
rtn = rtn * 26 + (char.ToUpper(c) - '#');
return rtn - 1;
//return rtn;
}
These two functions are zero-based. That is, "A" = 0, "Z" = 25, "AA" = 26, etc. To make them one-based (like Excel's COM interface), remove the line above the commented line in each function, and uncomment those lines.
As with the NextColumn function, these functions don't validate their inputs. Both with give you garbage if that's what they get.

Here’s what I came up with.
/// <summary>
/// Return an incremented alphabtical string
/// </summary>
/// <param name="letter">The string to be incremented</param>
/// <returns>the incremented string</returns>
public static string NextLetter(string letter)
{
const string alphabet = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ";
if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(letter))
{
char lastLetterInString = letter[letter.Length - 1];
// if the last letter in the string is the last letter of the alphabet
if (alphabet.IndexOf(lastLetterInString) == alphabet.Length - 1)
{
//replace the last letter in the string with the first leter of the alphbat and get the next letter for the rest of the string
return NextLetter(letter.Substring(0, letter.Length - 1)) + alphabet[0];
}
else
{
// replace the last letter in the string with the proceeding letter of the alphabet
return letter.Remove(letter.Length-1).Insert(letter.Length-1, (alphabet[alphabet.IndexOf(letter[letter.Length-1])+1]).ToString() );
}
}
//return the first letter of the alphabet
return alphabet[0].ToString();
}

just curious , why not just
private string alphRecursive(int c) {
var alphabet = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz".ToCharArray();
if (c >= alphabet.Length) {
return alphRecursive(c/alphabet.Length) + alphabet[c%alphabet.Length];
} else {
return "" + alphabet[c%alphabet.Length];
}
}

This is like displaying an int, only using base 26 in stead of base 10. Try the following algorithm to find the nth entry of the array
q = n div 26;
r = n mod 26;
s = '';
while (q > 0 || r > 0) {
s = alphabet[r] + s;
q = q div 26;
r = q mod 26;
}
Of course, if you want the first n entries, this is not the most efficient solution. In this case, try something like daniel's solution.

I gave this a go and came up with this:
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
namespace Alphabetty
{
class Program
{
const string alphabet = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz";
static int cursor = 0;
static int prefixCursor;
static string prefix = string.Empty;
static bool done = false;
static void Main(string[] args)
{
string s = string.Empty;
while (s != "Done")
{
s = GetNextString();
Console.WriteLine(s);
}
Console.ReadKey();
}
static string GetNextString()
{
if (done) return "Done";
char? nextLetter = GetNextLetter(ref cursor);
if (nextLetter == null)
{
char? nextPrefixLetter = GetNextLetter(ref prefixCursor);
if(nextPrefixLetter == null)
{
done = true;
return "Done";
}
prefix = nextPrefixLetter.Value.ToString();
nextLetter = GetNextLetter(ref cursor);
}
return prefix + nextLetter;
}
static char? GetNextLetter(ref int letterCursor)
{
if (letterCursor == alphabet.Length)
{
letterCursor = 0;
return null;
}
char c = alphabet[letterCursor];
letterCursor++;
return c;
}
}
}

Here is something I had cooked up that may be similar. I was experimenting with iteration counts in order to design a numbering schema that was as small as possible, yet gave me enough uniqueness.
I knew that each time a added an Alpha character, it would increase the possibilities 26x but I wasn't sure how many letters, numbers, or the pattern I wanted to use.
That lead me to the code below. Basically you pass it an AlphaNumber string, and every position that has a Letter, would eventually increment to "z\Z" and every position that had a Number, would eventually increment to "9".
So you can call it 1 of two ways..
//This would give you the next Itteration... (H3reIsaStup4dExamplf)
string myNextValue = IncrementAlphaNumericValue("H3reIsaStup4dExample")
//Or Loop it resulting eventually as "Z9zzZzzZzzz9zZzzzzzz"
string myNextValue = "H3reIsaStup4dExample"
while (myNextValue != null)
{
myNextValue = IncrementAlphaNumericValue(myNextValue)
//And of course do something with this like write it out
}
(For me, I was doing something like "1AA000")
public string IncrementAlphaNumericValue(string Value)
{
//We only allow Characters a-b, A-Z, 0-9
if (System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.IsMatch(Value, "^[a-zA-Z0-9]+$") == false)
{
throw new Exception("Invalid Character: Must be a-Z or 0-9");
}
//We work with each Character so it's best to convert the string to a char array for incrementing
char[] myCharacterArray = Value.ToCharArray();
//So what we do here is step backwards through the Characters and increment the first one we can.
for (Int32 myCharIndex = myCharacterArray.Length - 1; myCharIndex >= 0; myCharIndex--)
{
//Converts the Character to it's ASCII value
Int32 myCharValue = Convert.ToInt32(myCharacterArray[myCharIndex]);
//We only Increment this Character Position, if it is not already at it's Max value (Z = 90, z = 122, 57 = 9)
if (myCharValue != 57 && myCharValue != 90 && myCharValue != 122)
{
myCharacterArray[myCharIndex]++;
//Now that we have Incremented the Character, we "reset" all the values to the right of it
for (Int32 myResetIndex = myCharIndex + 1; myResetIndex < myCharacterArray.Length; myResetIndex++)
{
myCharValue = Convert.ToInt32(myCharacterArray[myResetIndex]);
if (myCharValue >= 65 && myCharValue <= 90)
{
myCharacterArray[myResetIndex] = 'A';
}
else if (myCharValue >= 97 && myCharValue <= 122)
{
myCharacterArray[myResetIndex] = 'a';
}
else if (myCharValue >= 48 && myCharValue <= 57)
{
myCharacterArray[myResetIndex] = '0';
}
}
//Now we just return an new Value
return new string(myCharacterArray);
}
}
//If we got through the Character Loop and were not able to increment anything, we retun a NULL.
return null;
}

Here's my attempt using recursion:
public static void PrintAlphabet(string alphabet, string prefix)
{
for (int i = 0; i < alphabet.Length; i++) {
Console.WriteLine(prefix + alphabet[i].ToString());
}
if (prefix.Length < alphabet.Length - 1) {
for (int i = 0; i < alphabet.Length; i++) {
PrintAlphabet(alphabet, prefix + alphabet[i]);
}
}
}
Then simply call PrintAlphabet("abcd", "");

How to run-length encode 'EEDDDNE' to '2E3DNE'?

Explanation: The task itself is that we have 13 strings (stored in the sor[] array) like the one in the title or 'EEENKDDDDKKKNNKDK'
and we have to shorten it in a way that if there's two or more of the same letter next to eachother then we have to write it in the form of 'NumberoflettersLetter'
So by this rule, 'EEENKDDDDKKKNNKDK' would become '3ENK4D3K2NKDK'
using System;
public class Program
{
public static void Main(string[] args)
{
string[] sor = new string[] { "EEENKDDDDKKKNNKDK", "'EEDDDNE'" };
char holder;
int counter = 0;
string temporary;
int indexholder;
for (int i = 0; i < sor.Length; i++)
{
for (int q = 0; q < sor[i].Length; q++)
{
holder = sor[i][q];
indexholder = q;
counter = 0;
while (sor[i][q] == holder)
{
q++;
counter++;
}
if (counter > 1)
{
temporary = Convert.ToString(counter) + holder;
sor[i].Replace(sor[i].Substring(indexholder, q), temporary); // EX here
}
}
}
Console.ReadLine();
}
}
Sorry I didn't make the error clear, it says that :
"The value of index and length has to represent a place inside the string (System.ArgumentOutOfRangeException) - name of parameter: length"
...but I have no clue what's wrong with it, maybe it's a tiny little mistake, maybe the whole thing is messed up, so this is why I'd like someone to help me with this D:
(Ps 'indexholder' is there because i need it for another exercise)
EDIT:
'sor' is the string array that holds these strings (there are 13 of them) like the one mentioned in the title or in the example

You can use regex for this:
Regex.Replace("EEENKDDDDKKKNNKDK", #"(.)\1+", m => $"{m.Length}{m.Groups[1].Value}")
Explanation:
(.) matches any character and puts it in group #1
\1+ matches group #1 as many times can it can

Shortening the same string inplace is more difficult then construction a new one while iterating the old one char by char. If you plan to iteratively add to a string it is better to use the StringBuilder - class instead of adding directly to a string (performance reasons).
You can streamline your approach by using IEnumerable.Aggregate function wich does the iteration on one string for you automatically:
using System;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
public class Program
{
public static string RunLengthEncode(string s)
{
if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(s)) // avoid null ref ex and do simple case
return "";
// we need a "state" between the differenc chars of s that we store here:
char curr_c = s[0]; // our current char, we start with the 1st one
int count = 0; // our char counter, we start with 0 as it will be
// incremented as soon as it is processed by Aggregate
// ( and then incremented to 1)
var agg = s.Aggregate(new StringBuilder(), (acc, c) => // StringBuilder
// performs better for multiple string-"additions" then string itself
{
if (c == curr_c)
count++; // same char, increment
else
{
// other char
if (count > 1) // store count if > 1
acc.AppendFormat("{0}", count);
acc.Append(curr_c); // store char
curr_c = c; // set current char to new one
count = 1; // startcount now is 1
}
return acc;
});
// add last things
if (count > 1) // store count if > 1
agg.AppendFormat("{0}", count);
agg.Append(curr_c); // store char
return agg.ToString(); // return the "simple" string
}
Test with
public static void Main(string[] args)
{
Console.WriteLine(RunLengthEncode("'EEENKDDDDKKKNNKDK' "));
Console.ReadLine();
}
}
Output for "'EEENKDDDDKKKNNKDK' ":
'3ENK4D3K2NKDK'
Your approach without using the same string is more like this:
var data = "'EEENKDDDDKKKNNKDK' ";
char curr_c = '\x0'; // avoid unasssinged warning
int count = 0; // counter for the curr_c occurences in row
string result = string.Empty; // resulting string
foreach (var c in data) // process every character of data in order
{
if (c != curr_c) // new character found
{
if (count > 1) // more then 1, add count as string and the char
result += Convert.ToString(count) + curr_c;
else if (count > 0) // avoid initial `\x0` being put into string
result += curr_c;
curr_c = c; // remember new character
count = 1; // so far we found this one
}
else
count++; // not new, increment counter
}
// add the last counted char as well
if (count > 1)
result += Convert.ToString(count) + curr_c;
else
result += curr_c;
// output
Console.WriteLine(data + " ==> " + result);
Output:
'EEENKDDDDKKKNNKDK' ==> '3ENK4D3K2NKDK'
Instead of using the indexing operator [] on your string and have to struggle with indexes all over I use foreach c in "sometext" ... which will proceed char-wise through the string - much less hassle.
If you need to run-length encode an array/list (your sor) of strings, simply apply the code to each one (preferably by using foreach s in yourStringList ....

convert or figure formula which is contained parentheses

i need to find a way to conert treated formula(just using digits,letters and parentheses)
for example, for this input: '5(2(a)sz)' the output should be :'aaszaaszaaszaaszaasz'
i tried in that way:
string AddChainDeleteBracks(int open, int close, string input)
{
string to="",from="";
//get the local chain multipule the number in input[open-1]
//the number of the times the chain should be multiplied
for (int i = input[open - 1]; i > 0; i--)
{
//the content
for (int m = open + 1; m < close; m++)
{
to = to + input[m];
}
}
//get the chain i want to replace with "to"
for (int j = open - 1; j <= close; j++)
{
from = from + input[j];
}
String output = input.Replace(from, to);
return output;
}
but it doesn't work. Do u have a better idea to solve this?

You could store the opening parenthesis positions along with the number associated with that parenthesis in a stack (Last-in-First-out, e.g. System.Collections.Generic.Stack); then when you encounter the first (that is: next) closing parenthesis, pop the top of the stack: this will give you the beginning and ending position of the substring between the (so far most inner) parentheses you need to repeat. Then replace this portion of the original string (including the repetion number) with the repeated string. Continue until you reach the end of the string.
Things to be aware of:
when you do the replacement, you will need to update your current position so it now points to the end of the repetiotion string in the new (modified) string
depending whether 0 repetion is allowed, you might need to handle an empty repetition -- that is an empty string
when you reach the end of the string, the stack should be empty (all opening parentheses were matched with a closing one)
the stack might become empty in the middle of the string -- if you encounter a closing parentheses, the input string was malformed
there might be a way to escape the opening/cloding parentheses, so they don't count as part of the repetition pattern -- this depends on your requirements

Since the syntax of your expression is recursive, I suggest a recursive approach.
First split the expression into single tokens. I use Regex to do it and remove empty entries.
Example: "5(2(a)sz)" is split into "5", "(", "2", "(", "a", ")", "sz", ")"
Using an Enumerator enables you to get the tokens one by one. tokens.MoveNext() gets the next token. tokens.Current is the current token.
public string ConvertExpression(string expression)
{
IEnumerator<string> tokens = Regex.Split(expression, #"\b")
.Where(s => s != "")
.GetEnumerator();
if (tokens.MoveNext()) {
return Parse(tokens);
}
return "";
}
Here the main job is done in a recursive way
private string Parse(IEnumerator<string> tokens)
{
string s = "";
while (tokens.Current != ")") {
int n;
if (tokens.Current == "(") {
if (tokens.MoveNext()) {
s += Parse(tokens);
if (tokens.Current == ")") {
tokens.MoveNext();
return s;
}
}
} else if (Int32.TryParse(tokens.Current, out n)) {
if (tokens.MoveNext()) {
string subExpr = Parse(tokens);
var sb = new StringBuilder();
for (int i = 0; i < n; i++) {
sb.Append(subExpr);
}
s += sb.ToString();
}
} else {
s += tokens.Current;
if (!tokens.MoveNext())
return s;
}
}
return s;
}

Here is my second answer. My first answer was a quick shot. Here I tried to create a parser by doing the things one by one.
In order to convert an expression, you need to parse it. This means that you have to analyze its syntax. While analyzing its syntax you can produce an output as well.
1 The first thing to do, is to define the syntax of all the valid expressions.
Here I use EBNF to do it. EBNF is simple.
{ and } enclose repetitions (possibly zero).
[ and ] encloses an optional part.
| separates alternatives.
See Extended Backus–Naur Form (EBNF) on Wikpedia for more detailed information on EBNF. (The EBNF variant used here drops the concatenation operator ",").
Our syntax in EBNF
Expression = { Term }.
Term = [ Number ] Factor.
Factor = Text | "(" Expression ")" | Term.
Examples
5(2(a)sz) => aaszaaszaaszaaszaasz
5(2a sz) => aaszaaszaaszaaszaasz
2 3(a 2b)c => abbabbabbabbabbabbc
2 Lexical analysis
Before we analyze the syntax we have to split the whole expression into single lexical tokens (numbers, operators, etc.).
We use an enum to indicate the token type
private enum TokenType
{
None,
LPar,
RPar,
Number,
Text
}
The following fields are used to hold the token information and the Boolean _error which tells whether an error occurred during parsing.
private IEnumerator<Match> _matches;
TokenType _tokenType;
string _text;
int _number;
bool _error;
The method ConvertExpression starts the conversion. It splits the expression into single tokens represented as Regex.Matches.
Those are used by the method GetToken, which in turn converts the Regex.Matches into more useful information. This information is stored in the fields described above.
public string ConvertExpression(string expression)
{
_matches = Regex.Matches(expression, #"\d+|\(|\)|[a-zA-Z]+")
.Cast<Match>()
.GetEnumerator();
_error = false;
return GetToken() ? Expression() : "";
}
private bool GetToken()
{
_number = 0;
_tokenType = TokenType.None;
_text = null;
if (_error || !_matches.MoveNext())
return false;
_text = _matches.Current.Value;
switch (_text[0]) {
case '(':
_tokenType = TokenType.LPar;
break;
case ')':
_tokenType = TokenType.RPar;
break;
case '0':
case '1':
case '2':
case '3':
case '4':
case '5':
case '6':
case '7':
case '8':
case '9':
_tokenType = TokenType.Number;
_number = Int32.Parse(_text);
break;
default:
_tokenType = TokenType.Text;
break;
}
return true;
}
3 Syntactic and Semantic Analysis
Now we have everything we need to perform the actual parsing and expression conversion. Each of the methods below analyses one EBNF syntax production and returns the result of the conversion as string.
The conversion of EBNF into C# code is straight forward. A repetition in the syntax is converted to a C# loop statement.
An option is converted to an if statement and alternatives are converted to a switch statement.
// Expression = { Term }.
private string Expression()
{
string s = "";
do {
s += Term();
} while (_tokenType != TokenType.RPar && _tokenType != TokenType.None);
return s;
}
// Term = [ Number ] Factor.
private string Term()
{
int n;
if (_tokenType == TokenType.Number) {
n = _number;
if (!GetToken()) {
_error = true;
return " Error: Factor expected.";
}
string factor = Factor();
if (_error) {
return factor;
}
var sb = new StringBuilder(n * factor.Length);
for (int i = 0; i < n; i++) {
sb.Append(factor);
}
return sb.ToString();
}
return Factor();
}
// Factor = Text | "(" Expression ")" | Term.
private string Factor()
{
switch (_tokenType) {
case TokenType.None:
_error = true;
return " Error: Unexpected end of Expression.";
case TokenType.LPar:
if (GetToken()) {
string s = Expression();
if (_tokenType == TokenType.RPar) {
GetToken();
return s;
} else {
_error = true;
return s + " Error ')' expected.";
}
} else {
_error = true;
return " Error: Unexpected end of Expression.";
}
case TokenType.RPar:
_error = true;
GetToken();
return " Error: Unexpected ')'.";
case TokenType.Text:
string t = _text;
GetToken();
return t;
default:
return Term();
}
}

Parsing strings recursively

I am trying to extract information out of a string - a fortran formatting string to be specific. The string is formatted like:
F8.3, I5, 3(5X, 2(A20,F10.3)), 'XXX'
with formatting fields delimited by "," and formatting groups inside brackets, with the number in front of the brackets indicating how many consecutive times the formatting pattern is repeated. So, the string above expands to:
F8.3, I5, 5X, A20,F10.3, A20,F10.3, 5X, A20,F10.3, A20,F10.3, 5X, A20,F10.3, A20,F10.3, 'XXX'
I am trying to make something in C# that will expand a string that conforms to that pattern. I have started going about it with lots of switch and if statements, but am wondering if I am not going about it the wrong way?
I was basically wondering if some Regex wizzard thinks that Regular expressions can do this in one neat-fell swoop? I know nothing about regular expressions, but if this could solve my problem I am considering putting in some time to learn how to use them... on the other hand if regular expressions can't sort this out then I'd rather spend my time looking at another method.

This has to be doable with Regex :)
I've expanded my previous example and it test nicely with your example.
// regex to match the inner most patterns of n(X) and capture the values of n and X.
private static readonly Regex matcher = new Regex(#"(\d+)\(([^(]*?)\)", RegexOptions.None);
// create new string by repeating X n times, separated with ','
private static string Join(Match m)
{
var n = Convert.ToInt32(m.Groups[1].Value); // get value of n
var x = m.Groups[2].Value; // get value of X
return String.Join(",", Enumerable.Repeat(x, n));
}
// expand the string by recursively replacing the innermost values of n(X).
private static string Expand(string text)
{
var s = matcher.Replace(text, Join);
return (matcher.IsMatch(s)) ? Expand(s) : s;
}
// parse a string for occurenses of n(X) pattern and expand then.
// return the string as a tokenized array.
public static string[] Parse(string text)
{
// Check that the number of parantheses is even.
if (text.Sum(c => (c == '(' || c == ')') ? 1 : 0) % 2 == 1)
throw new ArgumentException("The string contains an odd number of parantheses.");
return Expand(text).Split(new[] { ',', ' ' }, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries);
}

I would suggest using a recusive method like the example below( not tested ):
ResultData Parse(String value, ref Int32 index)
{
ResultData result = new ResultData();
Index startIndex = index; // Used to get substrings
while (index < value.Length)
{
Char current = value[index];
if (current == '(')
{
index++;
result.Add(Parse(value, ref index));
startIndex = index;
continue;
}
if (current == ')')
{
// Push last result
index++;
return result;
}
// Process all other chars here
}
// We can't find the closing bracket
throw new Exception("String is not valid");
}
You maybe need to modify some parts of the code, but this method have i used when writing a simple compiler. Although it's not completed, just a example.

Personally, I would suggest using a recursive function instead. Every time you hit an opening parenthesis, call the function again to parse that part. I'm not sure if you can use a regex to match a recursive data structure.
(Edit: Removed incorrect regex)

Ended up rewriting this today. It turns out that this can be done in one single method:
private static string ExpandBrackets(string Format)
{
int maxLevel = CountNesting(Format);
for (int currentLevel = maxLevel; currentLevel > 0; currentLevel--)
{
int level = 0;
int start = 0;
int end = 0;
for (int i = 0; i < Format.Length; i++)
{
char thisChar = Format[i];
switch (Format[i])
{
case '(':
level++;
if (level == currentLevel)
{
string group = string.Empty;
int repeat = 0;
/// Isolate the number of repeats if any
/// If there are 0 repeats the set to 1 so group will be replaced by itself with the brackets removed
for (int j = i - 1; j >= 0; j--)
{
char c = Format[j];
if (c == ',')
{
start = j + 1;
break;
}
if (char.IsDigit(c))
repeat = int.Parse(c + (repeat != 0 ? repeat.ToString() : string.Empty));
else
throw new Exception("Non-numeric character " + c + " found in front of the brackets");
}
if (repeat == 0)
repeat = 1;
/// Isolate the format group
/// Parse until the first closing bracket. Level is decremented as this effectively takes us down one level
for (int j = i + 1; j < Format.Length; j++)
{
char c = Format[j];
if (c == ')')
{
level--;
end = j;
break;
}
group += c;
}
/// Substitute the expanded group for the original group in the format string
/// If the group is empty then just remove it from the string
if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(group))
{
Format = Format.Remove(start - 1, end - start + 2);
i = start;
}
else
{
string repeatedGroup = RepeatString(group, repeat);
Format = Format.Remove(start, end - start + 1).Insert(start, repeatedGroup);
i = start + repeatedGroup.Length - 1;
}
}
break;
case ')':
level--;
break;
}
}
}
return Format;
}
CountNesting() returns the highest level of bracket nesting in the format statement, but could be passed in as a parameter to the method. RepeatString() just repeats a string the specified number of times and substitutes it for the bracketed group in the format string.

Parse an integer from a string with trailing garbage

I need to parse a decimal integer that appears at the start of a string.
There may be trailing garbage following the decimal number. This needs to be ignored (even if it contains other numbers.)
e.g.
"1" => 1
" 42 " => 42
" 3 -.X.-" => 3
" 2 3 4 5" => 2
Is there a built-in method in the .NET framework to do this?
int.TryParse() is not suitable. It allows trailing spaces but not other trailing characters.
It would be quite easy to implement this but I would prefer to use the standard method if it exists.

You can use Linq to do this, no Regular Expressions needed:
public static int GetLeadingInt(string input)
{
return Int32.Parse(new string(input.Trim().TakeWhile(c => char.IsDigit(c) || c == '.').ToArray()));
}
This works for all your provided examples:
string[] tests = new string[] {
"1",
" 42 ",
" 3 -.X.-",
" 2 3 4 5"
};
foreach (string test in tests)
{
Console.WriteLine("Result: " + GetLeadingInt(test));
}

foreach (var m in Regex.Matches(" 3 - .x. 4", #"\d+"))
{
Console.WriteLine(m);
}
Updated per comments
Not sure why you don't like regular expressions, so I'll just post what I think is the shortest solution.
To get first int:
Match match = Regex.Match(" 3 - .x. - 4", #"\d+");
if (match.Success)
Console.WriteLine(int.Parse(match.Value));

There's no standard .NET method for doing this - although I wouldn't be surprised to find that VB had something in the Microsoft.VisualBasic assembly (which is shipped with .NET, so it's not an issue to use it even from C#).
Will the result always be non-negative (which would make things easier)?
To be honest, regular expressions are the easiest option here, but...
public static string RemoveCruftFromNumber(string text)
{
int end = 0;
// First move past leading spaces
while (end < text.Length && text[end] == ' ')
{
end++;
}
// Now move past digits
while (end < text.Length && char.IsDigit(text[end]))
{
end++;
}
return text.Substring(0, end);
}
Then you just need to call int.TryParse on the result of RemoveCruftFromNumber (don't forget that the integer may be too big to store in an int).

I like #Donut's approach.
I'd like to add though, that char.IsDigit and char.IsNumber also allow for some unicode characters which are digits in other languages and scripts (see here).
If you only want to check for the digits 0 to 9 you could use "0123456789".Contains(c).
Three example implementions:
To remove trailing non-digit characters:
var digits = new string(input.Trim().TakeWhile(c =>
("0123456789").Contains(c)
).ToArray());
To remove leading non-digit characters:
var digits = new string(input.Trim().SkipWhile(c =>
!("0123456789").Contains(c)
).ToArray());
To remove all non-digit characters:
var digits = new string(input.Trim().Where(c =>
("0123456789").Contains(c)
).ToArray());
And of course: int.Parse(digits) or int.TryParse(digits, out output)

This doesn't really answer your question (about a built-in C# method), but you could try chopping off characters at the end of the input string one by one until int.TryParse() accepts it as a valid number:
for (int p = input.Length; p > 0; p--)
{
int num;
if (int.TryParse(input.Substring(0, p), out num))
return num;
}
throw new Exception("Malformed integer: " + input);
Of course, this will be slow if input is very long.
ADDENDUM (March 2016)
This could be made faster by chopping off all non-digit/non-space characters on the right before attempting each parse:
for (int p = input.Length; p > 0; p--)
{
char ch;
do
{
ch = input[--p];
} while ((ch < '0' || ch > '9') && ch != ' ' && p > 0);
p++;
int num;
if (int.TryParse(input.Substring(0, p), out num))
return num;
}
throw new Exception("Malformed integer: " + input);

string s = " 3 -.X.-".Trim();
string collectedNumber = string.empty;
int i;
for (x = 0; x < s.length; x++)
{
if (int.TryParse(s[x], out i))
collectedNumber += s[x];
else
break; // not a number - that's it - get out.
}
if (int.TryParse(collectedNumber, out i))
Console.WriteLine(i);
else
Console.WriteLine("no number found");

This is how I would have done it in Java:
int parseLeadingInt(String input)
{
NumberFormat fmt = NumberFormat.getIntegerInstance();
fmt.setGroupingUsed(false);
return fmt.parse(input, new ParsePosition(0)).intValue();
}
I was hoping something similar would be possible in .NET.
This is the regex-based solution I am currently using:
int? parseLeadingInt(string input)
{
int result = 0;
Match match = Regex.Match(input, "^[ \t]*\\d+");
if (match.Success && int.TryParse(match.Value, out result))
{
return result;
}
return null;
}

Might as well add mine too.
string temp = " 3 .x£";
string numbersOnly = String.Empty;
int tempInt;
for (int i = 0; i < temp.Length; i++)
{
if (Int32.TryParse(Convert.ToString(temp[i]), out tempInt))
{
numbersOnly += temp[i];
}
}
Int32.TryParse(numbersOnly, out tempInt);
MessageBox.Show(tempInt.ToString());
The message box is just for testing purposes, just delete it once you verify the method is working.

I'm not sure why you would avoid Regex in this situation.
Here's a little hackery that you can adjust to your needs.
" 3 -.X.-".ToCharArray().FindInteger().ToList().ForEach(Console.WriteLine);
public static class CharArrayExtensions
{
public static IEnumerable<char> FindInteger(this IEnumerable<char> array)
{
foreach (var c in array)
{
if(char.IsNumber(c))
yield return c;
}
}
}
EDIT:
That's true about the incorrect result (and the maintenance dev :) ).
Here's a revision:
public static int FindFirstInteger(this IEnumerable<char> array)
{
bool foundInteger = false;
var ints = new List<char>();
foreach (var c in array)
{
if(char.IsNumber(c))
{
foundInteger = true;
ints.Add(c);
}
else
{
if(foundInteger)
{
break;
}
}
}
string s = string.Empty;
ints.ForEach(i => s += i.ToString());
return int.Parse(s);
}

private string GetInt(string s)
{
int i = 0;
s = s.Trim();
while (i<s.Length && char.IsDigit(s[i])) i++;
return s.Substring(0, i);
}

Similar to Donut's above but with a TryParse:
private static bool TryGetLeadingInt(string input, out int output)
{
var trimmedString = new string(input.Trim().TakeWhile(c => char.IsDigit(c) || c == '.').ToArray());
var canParse = int.TryParse( trimmedString, out output);
return canParse;
}