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Need help comparing extracted data and outputting to file

New to C#, and having trouble finding ways to compare data so far collected from conf file, and outputting it to either text or CSV.
I so far have the skeleton of data extraction code from said conf file, however as I'm new to C# and coding overall, I'm having trouble understanding how to reference that data or compare it.
So far have tried File.WriteAllLiness and defining a variable, but not sure which element to parse, or at which point in the code I should introduce it.
Nothing to hide really, so here's the full output so far:
namespace CompareVal
{
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
var lines = File.ReadAllLines(#"D:\*\*\Cleanup\Script Project\Test-Raw-Conf.txt");
var ipAddresses = GetIPAddresses(lines);
var routes = GetRoutes(lines);
var ipRules = GetIPRules(lines);
Console.WriteLine ();
}
static Dictionary<string, string[]> GetIPAddresses(string[] lines)
{
var result = new Dictionary<string, string[]>();
foreach (var line in lines)
{
if (!line.StartsWith("add IPAddress"))
{
continue;
}
Match match;
if (line.Contains("Address=\""))
{
match = Regex.Match(line, "add IPAddress (.*?) Address=\"(.*?)\"");
}
else
{
match = Regex.Match(line, "add IPAddress (.*?) Address=(.*?)$");
}
var name = match.Groups[1].Value;
var value = match.Groups[2].Value;
var items = value.Replace(" ", "").Split(',');
result.Add(name, items);
}
return result;
}
static List<Route> GetRoutes(string[] lines)
{
var result = new List<Route>();
string currentRoutingTable = null;
foreach (var line in lines)
{
if (line.StartsWith("cc RoutingTable"))
{
currentRoutingTable = line.Split(' ')[2].Trim();
}
if (line == "cc .." && currentRoutingTable != null)
{
currentRoutingTable = null;
}
if (line.StartsWith(" add Route"))
{
var #interface = Regex.Match(line, "Interface=(.*?) ").Groups[1].Value;
var gateway = Regex.Match(line, "Gateway=(.*?) ").Groups[1].Value;
var network = Regex.Match(line, "Network=(.*?) ").Groups[1].Value;
result.Add(new Route
{
RoutingTable = currentRoutingTable,
Interface = #interface,
Gateway = gateway,
Network = network
});
}
}
return result;
}
static List<IPRule> GetIPRules(string[] lines)
{
var result = new List<IPRule>();
string currentIPRuleSet = null;
foreach (var line in lines)
{
if (line.StartsWith("cc IPRuleSet"))
{
currentIPRuleSet = line.Split(' ')[2].Trim();
}
if (line == "cc .." && currentIPRuleSet != null)
{
currentIPRuleSet = null;
}
if (line.StartsWith(" add IPRule"))
{
var rule = new IPRule
{
IPRuleSet = currentIPRuleSet,
SourceInterface = GetProperty(line, "SourceInterface"),
DestinationInterface = GetProperty(line, "DestinationInterface"),
};
if (line.Contains("SourceNetwork=\""))
{
rule.SourceNetwork = GetQuotedProperty(line, "SourceNetwork").Replace(" ", "").Split(',');
}
else
{
rule.SourceNetwork = GetProperty(line, "SourceNetwork").Replace(" ", "").Split(',');
}
if (line.Contains("DestinationNetwork=\""))
{
rule.DestinationNetwork = GetQuotedProperty(line, "DestinationNetwork").Replace(" ", "").Split(',');
}
else
{
rule.DestinationNetwork = GetProperty(line, "DestinationNetwork").Replace(" ", "").Split(',');
}
result.Add(rule);
}
}
return result;
}
static string GetProperty(string input, string propertyName)
{
return Regex.Match(input, string.Format("{0}=(.*?) ", propertyName)).Groups[1].Value;
}
static string GetQuotedProperty(string input, string propertyName)
{
return Regex.Match(input, string.Format("{0}=\"(.*?)\" ", propertyName)).Groups[1].Value;
}
class Route
{
public string RoutingTable;
public string Interface;
public string Gateway;
public string Network;
}
class IPRule
{
public string IPRuleSet;
public string SourceInterface;
public string DestinationInterface;
public string[] SourceNetwork;
public string[] DestinationNetwork;
}
}
}
I'm hoping to compare values gathered by IPRule, Route and IPAddress classes, and have a method of outputting each associated value in a list. Each IPAddress is contains a unique string name, but can use any numerical IP address. The idea is to determine when the same IP has been used multiple times, regardless of IPAddress string name, and then compare this to routes, and flag when they are used in IPRules.
For reference, here are some samples of source data:
For IPAddresses, they can be formed in 1 of 2 ways - as a direct IP definition, or as a reference to another IPAddress object (or multi-reference):
add IPAddress Test Address=192.168.1.0/24
IPAddress referencing multiple other IPAddresses:
add IPAddress TestGroup Address="Test1, Test2, Test3"
For routes:
add Route Interface=if5 Gateway=if5_gw Network=Test ProxyARPInterfaces=""
And for IPRules:
add IPRule SourceInterface=if5 DestinationInterface=if3 SourceNetwork=Test1 DestinationNetwork=Test2 Service=dns-all Action=Allow
The above definitions will always follow the same pattern, so the data extraction code has been constructed to expect prefixes to each element, and sort them into their own dictionary or list.

C# remove empty url parameters regex

I am trying to remove empty url type parameters from a string using C#. My code sample is here.
public static string test ()
{
string parameters = "one=aa&two=&three=aaa&four=";
string pattern = "&[a-zA-Z][a-zA-Z]*=&";
string replacement = "";
Regex rgx = new Regex(pattern);
string result = rgx.Replace(parameters, replacement);
return parameters;
}
public static void Main(string[] args)
{
Console.WriteLine(test());
}
I tried the code in rextester
output: one=aa&two=&three=aaa&four=
expected output: one=aa&three=aaa

You absolutely do not need to roll your own Regex for this, try using HttpUtility.ParseQueryString():
public static string RemoveEmptyUrlParameters(string input)
{
var results = HttpUtility.ParseQueryString(input);
Dictionary<string, string> nonEmpty = new Dictionary<string, string>();
foreach(var k in results.AllKeys)
{
if(!string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(results[k]))
{
nonEmpty.Add(k, results[k]);
}
}
return string.Join("&", nonEmpty.Select(kvp => $"{kvp.Key}={kvp.Value}"));
}
Fiddle here

Regex:
(?:^|&)[a-zA-Z]+=(?=&|$)
This matches start of string or an ampersand ((?:^|&)) followed by at least one (english) letter ([a-zA-Z]+), an equal sign (=) and then nothing, made sure by the positive look-ahead ((?=&|$)) which matches end of string or a new parameter (started by &).
Code:
public static string test ()
{
string parameters = "one=aa&two=&three=aaa&four=";
string pattern = "(?:^|&)[a-zA-Z]+=(?=&|$)";
string replacement = "";
Regex rgx = new Regex(pattern);
string result = rgx.Replace(parameters, replacement);
return result;
}
public static void Main(string[] args)
{
Console.WriteLine(test());
}
Note that this also returns the correct variable (as pointed out by Joel Anderson)
See it live here at ideone.

The results of the Regex replace is not returned by the function. The function returns the variable "parameters", which is never updated or changed.
string parameters = "one=aa&two=&three=aaa&four=";
...
string result = rgx.Replace(parameters, replacement);
return parameters;
....
Perhaps you meant
return results;

String replace with recursive dictionary values

I have config for all the root api urls in app.config file that is loaded into dictionary of key and value pair.
Dictionary<string, string> variables = new Dictionary<string, string>()
{
{ "clientRefUrl", "[clientBaseUrl]/RealtimeReferenceData"},
{ "clientRealtimeUrl", "[clientBaseUrl]/RealtimeClinicalData"},
{ "localApiUrl", "LocalApi/Generic"},
{ "integrationRootFolder", "C:\\LocalServer\\Integration"},
{ "clientBaseUrl", "https://company.com/api"},
{ "clientAuthBaseUrl", "https://auth.company.com/api"}
};
I have an api url that comes from the config file like <endpoint name="saveuser" address="[clientRefUrl]/SaveUser" />.
I want to build that url in c# code as https://company.com/api/RealtimeReferenceData/SaveUser.
I am able to do this using the following method but the problem is that client has to make sure they don't move the clientBaseUrl to the top of the list. Or, any dependent key to the top of the list.
public static string EvaluateStringWithVariables(string strExpr)
{
Dictionary<string, string> variables = new Dictionary<string, string>()
{
{ "clientRefUrl", "[clientBaseUrl]/RealtimeReferenceData"},
{ "clientRealtimeUrl", "[clientBaseUrl]/RealtimeClinicalData"},
{ "localApiUrl", "LocalApi/Generic"},
{ "integrationRootFolder", "C:\\LocalServer\\Integration"},
{ "clientBaseUrl", "https://company.com/api"},
{ "clientAuthBaseUrl", "https://auth.company.com/api"}
};
foreach (string variable in variables.Keys)
{
var pattern = #"\[" + variable + #"\]";
strExpr = Regex.Replace(strExpr, pattern, variables[variable]);
}
return strExpr;
}
Is there a better way to do the same without any restriction. I tried another solution that uses regex and recursion:
public static string EvaluateStringWithVariables(string strExpr)
{
Dictionary<string, string> variables = new Dictionary<string, string>()
{
{ "clientRefUrl", "[clientBaseUrl]/RealtimeReferenceData"},
{ "clientRealtimeUrl", "[clientBaseUrl]/RealtimeClinicalData"},
{ "localApiUrl", "LocalApi/Generic"},
{ "integrationRootFolder", "C:\\LocalServer\\Integration"},
{ "clientBaseUrl", "https://company.com/api"},
{ "clientAuthBaseUrl", "https://auth.company.com/api"}
};
Regex regEx = new Regex(#"\[(\w+)\]", RegexOptions.Compiled);
strExpr = regEx.Replace(strExpr, match =>
{
string val = String.Empty;
if (variables.TryGetValue(match.Groups[1].Value, out val))
{
return val;
}
return match.Value;
});
Match rmatch = regEx.Match(strExpr);
if (rmatch.Success)
{
return EvaluateStringWithVariables(strExpr);
}
return strExpr;
}
But, recursion didn't go well when I had to evaluate a string like:
strExpr = "[integrationRootFolder]\\myfolder\\[msg.ClientId]\\In\\[personid]_[tabid]_[documentname]_[msg.ClientId].pdf"; which keep on trying to evaluate other variables that is not part of dictionary.

I think your regex solution was quite close, you just need to check to see if you found any values in the dictionary when you did the replace and if you did then call it recursively.
public static string EvaluateStringWithVariables(string strExpr)
{
Dictionary<string, string> variables = new Dictionary<string, string>()
{
{ "clientRefUrl", "[clientBaseUrl]/RealtimeReferenceData"},
{ "clientRealtimeUrl", "[clientBaseUrl]/RealtimeClinicalData"},
{ "localApiUrl", "LocalApi/Generic"},
{ "integrationRootFolder", "C:\\LocalServer\\Integration"},
{ "clientBaseUrl", "https://company.com/api"},
{ "clientAuthBaseUrl", "https://auth.company.com/api"}
};
Regex regEx = new Regex(#"\[(\w+)\]", RegexOptions.Compiled);
bool foundMatch = false;
strExpr = regEx.Replace(strExpr, match =>
{
string val = String.Empty;
if (variables.TryGetValue(match.Groups[1].Value, out val))
{
foundMatch = true;
return val;
}
return match.Value;
});
Match rmatch = regEx.Match(strExpr);
if (rmatch.Success && foundMatch )
{
return EvaluateStringWithVariables(strExpr);
}
return strExpr;
}

There's a quick but a suboptimal solution/fix for your first approach.
string prev;
do {
prev = strExpr;
foreach (string variable in variables.Keys)
{
var pattern = #"\[" + variable + #"\]";
strExpr = Regex.Replace(strExpr, pattern, variables[variable]);
}
}
until (prev == strExpr);
It will repeat substitutions until there's no replacements in the string.
You should care about possible loops in your substitution definitions. If there's any, do-loop will never ends. Add necessary checks or limit repetition count.

Parsing multi-line string in C#

I have a string that looks like this:
TYPE Email Forwarding
SIGNATURE mysig.html
COMPANY Smith Incorp
CLIENT NAME James Henries
... heaps of others ....
I need to get the values of Type, Signature, Company and Client Name. There are others but once I can find a soution on how to do these, I can do the rest. I have tried to split and trim the string but then it splits fields like CLIENT NAME or on values like Email Forwarding.

I would put all of the "key" values into a collection, and then parse the string into another collection and then compare the values of the collections.
Here is a rough outline of how you could get the values:
static void Main(string[] args)
{
//Assuming that you know all of the keys before hand
List<string> keys = new List<string>() { "TYPE", "SIGNATURE", "COMPANY", "CLIENT NAME" };
//Not sure of the origin of your string to parse. You would have to change
//this to read a file or query the DB or whatever
string multilineString =
#"TYPE Email Forwarding
SIGNATURE mysig.html
COMPANY Smith Incorp
CLIENT NAME James Henries";
//Split the string by newlines.
var lines = multilineString.Split(new string[] { Environment.NewLine }, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries);
//Iterate over keys because you probably have less keys than data in the event of duplicates
foreach (var key in keys)
{
//Reduce list of lines to check based on ones that start with a given key
var filteredLines = lines.Where(l => l.Trim().StartsWith(key)).ToList();
foreach (var line in filteredLines)
{
Console.WriteLine(line.Trim().Remove(0, key.Length + 1));
}
}
Console.ReadLine();
}

That will do your job.
If it is multiple lines then you can loop through each line and call KeyValue extension method as given below:
public static class Program
{
public static void Main()
{
var value = "TYPE Email Forwarding".KeyValue();
var value1 = "CLIENT NAME James Henries".KeyValue();
}
public static KeyValuePair<string, string> KeyValue(this string rawData)
{
var splitValue = rawData.Split(new[] { ' ' }, System.StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries);
KeyValuePair<string, string> returnValue;
var key = string.Empty;
var value = string.Empty;
foreach (var item in splitValue)
{
if (item.ToUpper() == item)
{
if (string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(key))
{
key += item;
}
else
{
key += " " + item;
}
}
else
{
if (string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(value))
{
value += item;
}
else
{
value += " " + item;
}
}
}
returnValue = new KeyValuePair<string, string>(key, value);
return returnValue;
}
}
Please note that this logic will work only when keys are all upper and the values are not all upper case. Otherwise, there is no way to identify which one is key (without having a manual track on keys) and which one is not.

Parse through POST

I use Stream reader to read context.Request.InputStream to the end and end up with a string looking like
"Gamestart=true&GamePlayer=8&CurrentDay=Monday&..."
What would be the most efficent/"clean" way to parse that in a C# console?

You can use HttpUtility.ParseQueryString
Little sample:
string queryString = "Gamestart=true&GamePlayer=8&CurrentDay=Monday"; //Hardcoded just for example
NameValueCollection qscoll = HttpUtility.ParseQueryString(querystring);
foreach (String k in qscoll.AllKeys)
{
//Prints result in output window.
System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine(k + " = " + qscoll[k]);
}

HttpUtility.ParseQueryString
Parses a query string into a NameValueCollection using UTF8 encoding.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms150046.aspx

I know this is a bit of a zombie post but I thought I'd add another answer since HttpUtility adds another assembly reference (System.Web), which may be undesirable to some.
using System.Net;
using System.Text.RegularExpressions;
static readonly Regex HttpQueryDelimiterRegex = new Regex(#"\?", RegexOptions.Compiled);
static readonly Regex HttpQueryParameterDelimiterRegex = new Regex(#"&", RegexOptions.Compiled);
static readonly Regex HttpQueryParameterRegex = new Regex(#"^(?<ParameterName>\S+)=(?<ParameterValue>\S*)$", RegexOptions.Compiled);
static string GetPath(string pathAndQuery)
{
var components = HttpQueryDelimiterRegex.Split(pathAndQuery, 2);
return components[0];
}
static Dictionary<string, string> GetQueryParameters(string pathAndQuery)
{
var parameters = new Dictionary<string, string>(StringComparer.OrdinalIgnoreCase);
var components = HttpQueryDelimiterRegex.Split(pathAndQuery, 2);
if (components.Length > 1)
{
var queryParameters = HttpQueryParameterDelimiterRegex.Split(components[1]);
foreach(var queryParameter in queryParameters)
{
var match = HttpQueryParameterRegex.Match(queryParameter);
if (!match.Success) continue;
var parameterName = WebUtility.HtmlDecode(match.Groups["ParameterName"].Value) ?? string.Empty;
var parameterValue = WebUtility.HtmlDecode(match.Groups["ParameterValue"].Value) ?? string.Empty;
parameters[parameterName] = parameterValue;
}
}
return parameters;
}
I wish they would add that same method to WebUtility which is available in System.Net as of .NET 4.0.