I have been trying on a banking application code in which I want to monitor transaction activity where you read through a list of transaction records and return account nos that have exceeded the threshold amount for a given date.
For this I created a dummy text file using streamwriter where in I have the transaction records maintained spaced out with \t
For eg: AccountNumber\tTransactionDate\tTransactionAmount
When I read I am not sure how to split and collect distinct account nos for a given date and calculate the transaction amounts to further verify if its above the threshold amount.
Any help with this will be highly appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
You could split out the tabs to an array using split on the string you've read.
String Instr = "AccountNumber\tTransactionDate\tTransactionAmount";
char delim = '\t';
string[] array = Instr.Split(delim);
// array[0] = AccountNumber
// array[1] = TransactionDate
// array[2] = TransactionAmount
To build upon what Steve said, I would personally be inclined to deserialize the text into an object. Doing something like what I have below....
Now, instead of having just an array of text you could have an array of objects whose properties are the right types. Lots easier to do a date comparison... add up all of the amounts for a particular account when they're in plain old objects. At least, for me it is.
As a side note, what I have below is a pretty bad idea to do. But if you're just stubbing something out to replace it with something like a database access layer in the future, this could work in the short term.
Edit: If you're going to be storing data in plain text files, it would be much better to store them in a format that C# can handle. Something like JSON, and then use Newtonsoft.Json to serialize / deserialize or XML and use System.Xml.Serialization to serialize / deserialize the data.
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
string srcfile = #"C:\Workspace\tmp\TestSTuff\bank\transactions.txt";
string transactionstr;
using (FileStream fs = new FileStream(srcfile, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read))
{
byte[] buffer = new byte[fs.Length];
int numtoread = (int)fs.Length;
int numread = 0;
while (numtoread > 0)
{
int n = fs.Read(buffer, numread, numtoread);
if (n == 0)
break;
numread += n;
numtoread -= n;
}
transactionstr = Encoding.Default.GetString(buffer);
}
char[] newline = { '\r','\n' };
char delim = ',';
string[] transactionstrs = transactionstr.Split(newline);
List<Transaction> transactions = new List<Transaction>();
foreach (var t in transactionstrs)
{
try
{
string[] fields = t.Split(delim);
DateTime.Parse(fields[1]);
transactions.Add(new Transaction
{
AccountNumber = int.Parse(fields[0]),
TransactionDate = DateTime.Parse(fields[1]),
TransactionAmount = double.Parse(fields[2])
});
}
catch
{
continue;
}
}
}
}
public class Transaction
{
public int AccountNumber { get; set; }
public DateTime TransactionDate { get; set; }
public double TransactionAmount { get; set; }
}
Related
Closed. This question needs to be more focused. It is not currently accepting answers.
Want to improve this question? Update the question so it focuses on one problem only by editing this post.
Closed 7 years ago.
Improve this question
I have this text file that only has one row. Each file contains one customer name but multiple items and descriptions.
Record starting with 00 (Company Name) has a char length of 10
01 (Item#) - char length of 10
02 (Description) - char length of 50
I know how to read a file, but I don't have any idea of how to loop through only one line, find records 00, 01, 02 and grab the text based on the length, finally start at the position of the last records and start the loop again. Can someone please give me an idea of how to read files like this?
output:
companyName 16622 Description
companyName 15522 Description
input text file example
00Init 0115522 02Description 0116622 02Description
This solution assumes that the data is fixed width, and that item number will preceed description (01 before 02). This solution will emit a record every time a description record is encountered, and deals with multiple products for the same company.
First, define a class to hold your data:
public class Record
{
public string CompanyName { get; set; }
public string ItemNumber { get; set; }
public string Description { get; set; }
}
Then, iterate through your string, returning a record when you've got a description:
public static IEnumerable<Record> ReadFile(string input)
{
// Alter these as appropriate
const int RECORDTYPELENGTH = 2;
const int COMPANYNAMELENGTH = 41;
const int ITEMNUMBERLENGTH = 8;
const int DESCRIPTIONLENGTH = 48;
int index = 0;
string companyName = null;
string itemNumber = null;
while (index < input.Length)
{
string recordType = input.Substring(index, RECORDTYPELENGTH);
index += RECORDTYPELENGTH;
if (recordType == "00")
{
companyName = input.Substring(index, COMPANYNAMELENGTH).Trim();
index += COMPANYNAMELENGTH;
}
else if (recordType == "01")
{
itemNumber = input.Substring(index, ITEMNUMBERLENGTH).Trim();
index += ITEMNUMBERLENGTH;
}
else if (recordType == "02")
{
string description = input.Substring(index, DESCRIPTIONLENGTH).Trim();
index += DESCRIPTIONLENGTH;
yield return new Record
{
CompanyName = companyName,
ItemNumber = itemNumber,
Description = description
};
}
else
{
throw new FormatException("Unexpected record type " + recordType);
}
}
}
Note that your field lengths in the question don't match the sample data, so I adjusted them so that the solution worked with the data you provided. You can adjust the field lengths by adjusting the constants.
Use this like the following:
string input = "00CompanyName 0115522 02Description 0116622 02Description ";
foreach (var record in ReadFile(input))
{
Console.WriteLine("{0}\t{1}\t{2}", record.CompanyName, record.ItemNumber, record.Description);
}
If you read the whole file into a string, you have a couple options.
One, it might be useful to use string.split.
Another option would be to use string.indexof. Once you have the index, you could use string.substring
Assuming fixed-width as specified, lets create two simple classes to hold a client and its related data as a list:
// can hold as many items (data) as there are in the line
public class Client
{
public string name;
public List<ClientData> data;
};
// one single item in the client data
public class ClientData
{
public string code;
public string description;
};
To parse a single line (which is assumed to have a single client and a successive list of item/description), we can do this (note: for simplification I'm just creating a static class with a static method in it):
// this parser will read as many itens as there are in the line
// and return a Client instance with those inside.
public static class Parser
{
public static Client ParseData(string line)
{
Client client = new Client ();
client.data = new List<ClientData> ();
client.name = line.Substring (2, 10);
// remove the client name
line = line.Substring (12);
while (line.Length > 0)
{
// create new item
ClientData data = new ClientData ();
data.code = line.Substring (2, 10);
data.description = line.Substring (14, 50);
client.data.Add (data);
// next item
line = line.Substring (64);
}
return client;
}
}
So, in your main loop, just after reading a new line from the file, you can call the above method to receive a new client. Something like this:
// should be from a file but this is just an example
string[] lines = {
"00XXXXXXXXXX01YYYYYYYYYY02XXXXXXXXX.XXXXXXXXX.XXXXXXXXX.XXXXXXXXX.XXXXXXXXXX",
"00XXXXXXXXXX01YYYYYYYYYY02XXXXXXXXX.XXXXXXXXX.XXXXXXXXX.XXXXXXXXX.XXXXXXXXXX01YYYYYYYYYY02XXXXXXXXX.XXXXXXXXX.XXXXXXXXX.XXXXXXXXX.XXXXXXXXXX",
"00XXXXXXXXXX01YYYYYYYYYY02XXXXXXXXX.XXXXXXXXX.XXXXXXXXX.XXXXXXXXX.XXXXXXXXXX",
"00XXXXXXXXXX01YYYYYYYYYY02XXXXXXXXX.XXXXXXXXX.XXXXXXXXX.XXXXXXXXX.XXXXXXXXXX",
"00XXXXXXXXXX01YYYYYYYYYY02XXXXXXXXX.XXXXXXXXX.XXXXXXXXX.XXXXXXXXX.XXXXXXXXXX",
};
// loop through each line
// (lines can have multiple items)
foreach (string line in lines)
{
Client client = Parser.ParseData (line);
Console.WriteLine ("Read: " + client.name);
}
Contents of Sample.txt:
00Company1 0115522 02This is a description for company 1. 00Company2 0115523 02This is a description for company 2. 00Company3 0115524 02This is a description for company 3
Note that in the code below, the fields are 2 characters longer than those specified in the original question. This is because I am including the headings in the length of each field, thus a field of a length of 10is effectively 12 by including the 00 from the heading. If this is undesirable, tweak the offsets of the entries in the fieldLengths array.
String directory = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.Desktop);
String file = "Sample.txt";
String path = Path.Combine(directory, file);
Int32[] fieldLengths = new Int32[] { 12, 12, 52 };
List<RowData> rows = new List<RowData>();
Byte[] buffer = new Byte[fieldLengths.Sum()];
using (var stream = File.OpenRead(path))
{
while (stream.Read(buffer, 0, buffer.Length) > 0)
{
List<String> fieldValues = new List<String>();
Int32 offset = 0;
for (int i = 0; i < fieldLengths.Length; i++)
{
var value = Encoding.UTF8.GetString(buffer, offset, fieldLengths[i]);
fieldValues.Add(value);
offset += fieldLengths[i];
}
String companyName = fieldValues[0];
String itemNumber = fieldValues[1];
String description = fieldValues[2];
var row = new RowData(companyName, itemNumber, description);
rows.Add(row);
}
}
Class definition for RowData:
public class RowData
{
public String Company { get; set; }
public String Number { get; set; }
public String Description { get; set; }
public RowData(String company, String number, String description)
{
Company = company;
Number = number;
Description = description;
}
}
The results will be in the rows variable.
You would have to split rows based on a delimiter. It would seem that in your case you are using whitespace as a delimiter.
The method you are looking for is String.Split(), it should cover your needs :) Documentation is located at https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.string.split(v=vs.110).aspx - It also includes examples.
I'd do something like this:
string myLineOfText = "MyCompany 12345 The description of my company";
string[] partsOfMyLine = myLineOfText.Split(new string[] { " " }, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries);
Best of luck! :)
I am working on an application that is pulling a list of all file names from a specific directory and needs to then parse the file name into multiple variables to then be submitted to a database.
How can I parse the string file name into multiple variables?
EX Files:
2014_31_12_09_36AM_15555555555_108
2014_31_12_09_39AM_108_15555555555
2014_31_12_09_17AM_102_108
The file name contains year, day, month, hour, minutes (with AM/PM), and a 3 digit or 11 digit number, followed by another 3 or 11 digit number
All file names are stored in an array after the directory is scanned.
private void ParseFileNames()
{
string Year = "";
string Day = "";
string Month = "";
string Hour = "";
string Minute = "";
string Called = "";
string Calling = "";
//Loop through scanned file names and parse them one at a time.
for (int i = 0; i < fileNames.Length; i++)
{
string[] parsedFileName = fileNames[i].Split('_');
Year = parsedFileName[0];
Day = parsedFileName[1];
Month = parsedFileName[2];
Hour = parsedFileName[3];
Minute = parsedFileName[4];
Called = parsedFileName[5];
Calling = parsedFileName[6];
//open DB connection and submit each individual parsed file data into DB
//Move file from toIndexPath to IndexedPath
}
}
Is there a better way to do this?
you could return a class like this
public class FileData
{
public int Year {get;set;}
public int Day {get;set;}
public int Month {get;set;}
public int Hour {get;set;}
public int Minute {get;set;}
public int Called {get;set;}
public int Calling {get;set;}
public FileData(string[] parsedInfo)
{
Year = Convert.ToInt32(parsedInfo[0]);
// and so on with other member to load
}
}
then simply call the following to get a List<FileData> :
var listFileData = fileNames.Select(fn=> new FileData(fn.Split('_'))).ToList();
This code is shorter, I dont know about better, but at least you get a Date Time
//This code is just for testing the strings, delete these 4 after testing.
var stringList = new List<string>();
stringList.Add("2014_31_12_09_36AM_15555555555_108");
stringList.Add("2014_31_12_09_39AM_108_15555555555");
stringList.Add("2014_31_12_09_17AM_102_108");
var allFileDate = new List<FileData>();
foreach (var item in stringList)
{
var dt = item.Split('_');
var timeCombined = string.Concat(dt[2], "/", dt[1],"/", dt[0]," ", dt[3], ":", dt[4]);
allFileDate.Add(new FileData {Date = Convert.ToDateTime(timeCombined), Called = dt[5], Calling = dt[6]});
}
And your class
public class FileData
{
public DateTime Date { get; set; }
public string Called { get; set; }
public string Calling { get; set; }
}
All data validation in there and it's alright.
Is there a better way to do this?
'better' is pretty subjective. there's always a better way depending on what you want. In your case I would not be writing code to parse your filenames at all, and you'd be making a lot of round trips to populate your table one row at a time.
I would instead just use a bulk load command, e.g.: LOAD DATA ... INTO TABLE ... LINES TERMINATED BY '\r\n' FIELDS TERMINATED BY '_'
I have a text file with the following format of information:
1 1.2323232 2.2356 4.232 1.23664
2 1.344545
3 6.2356 7.56455212
etc....
How do I read the file in C#, parse it into an array, then do some processing on it?
Use File Helpers.
For eg. All you would need is to define the record parsing as this :
[DelimitedRecord("|")]
public class Orders
{
public int OrderID;
public string CustomerID;
[FieldConverter(ConverterKind.Date, "ddMMyyyy")] public DateTime OrderDate;
public decimal Freight;
}
And read the file in as this :
FileHelperEngine engine = new FileHelperEngine(typeof(Orders));
// to Read use:
Orders[] res = engine.ReadFile("TestIn.txt") as Orders[];
// to Write use:
engine.WriteFile("TestOut.txt", res);
You could change the delimiter to " " & suitably update the member types as well.
Hey your code looks like there is an ID value at position one. So I created some example code.
private List<MyValues> Read(string fileName)
{
var result = new List<MyValues>();
var line = new string[] { };
using (StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(fileName))
{
while (sr.Peek() > -1)
{
line = sr.ReadLine().Trim().Split(' ');
var val = new MyValues();
val.Id = Convert.ToInt32(line.ElementAt(0));
for (int n = 1; n < line.Count(); n++)
{
val.Values.Add(Convert.ToDouble(line[n]));
}
result.Add(val);
}
}
return result;
}
class MyValues
{
public int Id = 0;
public List<double> Values = new List<double>();
}
I have millions of lines generated from data updated every second which look like this:
104500 4783
104501 8930
104502 21794
104503 21927
104505 5746
104506 9968
104509 5867
104510 46353
104511 7767
104512 4903
The column on the left represents time (hhmmss format), and the column on the right is data which is updated second-by-second. As you can see however, it isn't actually second-by-second, and there are some missing times (10:45:04, 10:45:07, 10:45:08 are missing in this example). My goal is to add in the missing seconds, and to use the data from the previous second for that missing second, like this:
104500 4783
104501 8930
104502 21794
104503 21927
104504 21927 --
104505 5746
104506 9968
104507 9968 --
104508 9968 --
104509 5867
104510 46353
104511 7767
104512 4903
I don't want the "--" in the result, I just put those there to mark the added lines. So far I've tried to accomplish this using StreamReader and StreamWriter, but it doesn't seem like they're going to get me what I want. I'm a newbie programmer and a newbie to C#, so if you could just point me in the right direction, that would be great. I'm really just wondering if this is even possible to do in C#...I've spent a lot of time on MSDN and here on SO looking for a solution to this, but so far haven't found any.
Edit: The lines are in a text file, and I want to store the newly created data in a new text file.
There are a few things you need to put together.
Read a file line-by-line: See here: Reading a Text File One Line at a Time
Writing a file line-by-line : StreamWriter.WriteLine
Keep track of the last read line. (Just use a variable in your while loop where you read the lines)
Check whether there is a gap. Maybe by parsing the first column (string.Split) using TimeSpan.Parse. If there is a gap then write the last read line, incrementing the timespan.
ok, here is the whole shooting match, tested and working against your test data:
public void InjectMissingData()
{
DataLine lastDataLine = null;
using (var writer = new StreamWriter(File.Create("c:\\temp\\out.txt")))
{
using (var reader = new StreamReader("c:\\temp\\in.txt"))
{
while (!reader.EndOfStream)
{
var dataLine = DataLine.Parse(reader.ReadLine());
while (lastDataLine != null && dataLine.Occurence - lastDataLine.Occurence > TimeSpan.FromSeconds(1))
{
lastDataLine = new DataLine(lastDataLine.Occurence + TimeSpan.FromSeconds(1), lastDataLine.Data);
writer.WriteLine(lastDataLine.Line);
}
writer.WriteLine(dataLine.Line);
lastDataLine = dataLine;
}
}
}
}
public class DataLine
{
public static DataLine Parse(string line)
{
var timeString = string.Format("{0}:{1}:{2}", line.Substring(0, 2), line.Substring(2, 2),
line.Substring(4, 2));
return new DataLine(TimeSpan.Parse(timeString), long.Parse(line.Substring(7, line.Length - 7).Trim()));
}
public DataLine(TimeSpan occurence, long data)
{
Occurence = occurence;
Data = data;
}
public TimeSpan Occurence { get; private set; }
public long Data { get; private set; }
public string Line
{
get { return string.Format("{0}{1}{2} {3}",
Occurence.Hours.ToString().PadLeft(2, Char.Parse("0")),
Occurence.Minutes.ToString().PadLeft(2, Char.Parse("0")),
Occurence.Seconds.ToString().PadLeft(2, Char.Parse("0")),
Data); }
}
}
In adition to all answers, considering that you are talking about a huge files, consider use of MemoryMappedFiles, can read here to see how to use them from C#.
This is not performance improvement, but memory improvement definetely is.
So far as inserting new entries between certain ones goes, I would advise reading in the text file into separated lines, and then storing them in a List. That way, you can use the Insert(...) method to insert your new lines. From there, you can write the lines back into the file.
When reading the lines, you can use either of the static helper methods in the System.IO.File class: ReadAllText and ReadAllLines.
Note: I've added links to the MSDN Documentation for each of the methods and classes I've mentioned, since you said you are new to C# and programming in general.
String prevTime;
String prevData;
while(String line = myStreamReader.ReadLine())
{
String[] parts = line.Split(new Char[] { ' ' });
String time = parts[0];
String data = parts[1];
Int32 iPrevTime = Int32.Parse(prevTime);
Int32 iCurrentTime = Int32.Parse(time);
// May need to loop here if you're missing more than one second
if(iCurrentTime > iPrevTime + 1)
AddData((iPrevTime + 1).ToString(), prevData);
AddData(time, data);
prevTime = time;
prevData = data;
}
Here is some pseudo-code to get you started. I think you will want this type of algorithm.
Here's some rough code for you. I'm not properly disposing everything, it's just to get you started.
DateTime lastTime;
string lastValue = null;
StreamReader reader = File.OpenText("path");
StreamWriter writer = new StreamWriter(File.OpenWrite("newPath"));
while (!reader.EndOfStream)
{
string[] lineData = reader.ReadLine().Split(' ');
DateTime currentTime = DateTime.Parse(lineData[0]);
string value = lineData[1];
if (lastValue != null)
{
while (lastTime < currentTime.AddSeconds(-1))
{
lastTime = lastTime.AddSeconds(1);
writer.WriteLine("{0} {1}", lastTime, lastValue);
}
}
writer.WriteLine("{0} {1}", currentTime, value);
lastTime = currentTime;
lastValue = value;
}
This assumes the times are never more than a second apart. If that assumption is wrong, it's easy enough to modify the below so it writes the lastValue in a loop for each second missing.
Update I missed in your example that it can in fact miss multiple seconds. I changed the example below to address that.
using (StreamReader reader = OpenYourInputFile())
using (StreamWriter writer = OpenYourOutputFile())
{
TimeSpan? lastTime;
TimeSpan currentTime, maxDiff = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(1);
string lastValue, currentline, currentValue, format = "{0:hhmmss} {1}";
while( (currentLine = reader.ReadLine()) != null)
{
string[] s = currentLine.Split(' ');
currentTime = DateTime.ParseExact("hhmmss", s[0] CultureInfo.InvariantCulture).TimeOfDay;
currentValue = s[1];
if (lastTime.HasValue && currentTime - lastTime.Value > maxDiff)
{
for(int x = 1; x <= (currentTime - lastTime).Seconds; x++) writer.WriteLine(string.Format(format, DateTime.Today.Add(lastTime).AddSeconds(x), lastValue);
}
writer.WriteLine(string.Format(format, DateTime.Today.Add(currentTime), currentValue);
lastTime = currentTime;
lastValue = currentValue;
}
}
string line;//The line that is read.
string previousLine = "0 0";
int prevTime = 0;
//These "using"'s are so that the resources they use will be freed when the block ( i.e. {} ) is finished.
using (System.IO.StreamReader originalFile = new System.IO.StreamReader("c:\\users\\Me\\t.txt"))
using (System.IO.StreamWriter newFile = new System.IO.StreamWriter("c:\\users\\Me\\t2.txt"))
{
while ((line = originalFile.ReadLine()) != null)
{
//"Split" changes the words in "line" (- that are separated by a space) to an array.
//"Parse" takes the first in that array (by using "[0]") and changes it into an integer.
int time = int.Parse(line.Split(' ')[0]);
while (prevTime != 0 && time > ++prevTime) newFile.WriteLine(prevTime.ToString() + " " + previousLine.Split(' ')[1]);
previousLine = line;
prevTime = time;
newFile.WriteLine(line);
}
}
using asp.net 4
we do a lot of Word merges at work. rather than using the complicated conditional statements of Word i want to embed my own syntax. something like:
Dear Mr. { select lastname from users where userid = 7 },
Your invoice for this quarter is: ${ select amount from invoices where userid = 7 }.
......
ideally, i'd like this to get turned into:
string.Format("Dear Mr. {0}, Your invoice for this quarter is: ${1}", sqlEval[0], sqlEval[1]);
any ideas?
Well, I don't really recommend rolling your own solution for this, however I will answer the question as asked.
First, you need to process the text and extract the SQL statements. For that you'll need a simple parser:
/// <summary>Parses the input string and extracts a unique list of all placeholders.</summary>
/// <remarks>
/// This method does not handle escaping of delimiters
/// </remarks>
public static IList<string> Parse(string input)
{
const char placeholderDelimStart = '{';
const char placeholderDelimEnd = '}';
var characters = input.ToCharArray();
var placeHolders = new List<string>();
string currentPlaceHolder = string.Empty;
bool inPlaceHolder = false;
for (int i = 0; i < characters.Length; i++)
{
var currentChar = characters[i];
// Start of a placeholder
if (!inPlaceHolder && currentChar == placeholderDelimStart)
{
currentPlaceHolder = string.Empty;
inPlaceHolder = true;
continue;
}
// Start of a placeholder when we already have one
if (inPlaceHolder && currentChar == placeholderDelimStart)
throw new InvalidOperationException("Unexpected character detected at position " + i);
// We found the end marker while in a placeholder - we're done with this placeholder
if (inPlaceHolder && currentChar == placeholderDelimEnd)
{
if (!placeHolders.Contains(currentPlaceHolder))
placeHolders.Add(currentPlaceHolder);
inPlaceHolder = false;
continue;
}
// End of a placeholder with no matching start
if (!inPlaceHolder && currentChar == placeholderDelimEnd)
throw new InvalidOperationException("Unexpected character detected at position " + i);
if (inPlaceHolder)
currentPlaceHolder += currentChar;
}
return placeHolders;
}
Okay, so that will get you a list of SQL statements extracted from the input text. You'll probably want to tweak it to use properly typed parser exceptions and some input guards (which I elided for clarity).
Now you just need to replace those placeholders with the results of the evaluated SQL:
// Sample input
var input = "Hello Mr. {select firstname from users where userid=7}";
string output = input;
var extractedStatements = Parse(input);
foreach (var statement in extractedStatements)
{
// Execute the SQL statement
var result = Evaluate(statement);
// Update the output with the result of the SQL statement
output = output.Replace("{" + statement + "}", result);
}
This is obviously not the most efficient way to do this, but I think it sufficiently demonstrates the concept without muddying the waters.
You'll need to define the Evaluate(string) method. This will handle executing the SQL.
I just finished building a proprietary solution like this for a law firm here.
I evaluated a product called Windward reports. It's a tad pricy, esp if you need a lot of copies, but for one user it's not bad.
it can pull from XML or SQL data sources (or more if I remember).
Might be worth a look (and no I don't work for 'em, just evaluated their stuff)
You might want to check out the razor engine project on codeplex
http://razorengine.codeplex.com/
Using SQL etc within your template looks like a bad idea. I'd suggest you make a ViewModel for each template.
The Razor thing is really easy to use. Just add a reference, import the namespace, and call the Parse method like so:
(VB guy so excuse syntax!)
MyViewModel myModel = new MyViewModel("Bob",150.00); //set properties
string myTemplate = "Dear Mr. #Model.FirstName, Your invoice for this quarter is: #Model.InvoiceAmount";
string myOutput = Razor.Parse(myTemplate, myModel);
Your string can come from anywhere - I use this with my templates stored in a database, you could equally load it from files or whatever. It's very powerful as a view engine, you can do conditional stuff, loops, etc etc.
i ended up rolling my own solution but thanks. i really dislike if statements. i'll need to refactor them out. here it is:
var mailingMergeString = new MailingMergeString(input);
var output = mailingMergeString.ParseMailingMergeString();
public class MailingMergeString
{
private string _input;
public MailingMergeString(string input)
{
_input = input;
}
public string ParseMailingMergeString()
{
IList<SqlReplaceCommand> sqlCommands = new List<SqlReplaceCommand>();
var i = 0;
const string openBrace = "{";
const string closeBrace = "}";
while (string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(_input) == false)
{
var sqlReplaceCommand = new SqlReplaceCommand();
var open = _input.IndexOf(openBrace) + 1;
var close = _input.IndexOf(closeBrace);
var length = close != -1 ? close - open : _input.Length;
var newInput = _input.Substring(close + 1);
var nextClose = newInput.Contains(openBrace) ? newInput.IndexOf(openBrace) : newInput.Length;
if (i == 0 && open > 0)
{
sqlReplaceCommand.Text = _input.Substring(0, open - 1);
_input = _input.Substring(open - 1);
}
else
{
sqlReplaceCommand.Command = _input.Substring(open, length);
sqlReplaceCommand.PlaceHolder = openBrace + i + closeBrace;
sqlReplaceCommand.Text = _input.Substring(close + 1, nextClose);
sqlReplaceCommand.NewInput = _input.Substring(close + 1);
_input = newInput.Contains(openBrace) ? sqlReplaceCommand.NewInput : string.Empty;
}
sqlCommands.Add(sqlReplaceCommand);
i++;
}
return sqlCommands.GetParsedString();
}
internal class SqlReplaceCommand
{
public string Command { get; set; }
public string SqlResult { get; set; }
public string PlaceHolder { get; set; }
public string Text { get; set; }
protected internal string NewInput { get; set; }
}
}
internal static class SqlReplaceExtensions
{
public static string GetParsedString(this IEnumerable<MailingMergeString.SqlReplaceCommand> sqlCommands)
{
return sqlCommands.Aggregate("", (current, replaceCommand) => current + (replaceCommand.PlaceHolder + replaceCommand.Text));
}
}