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Importing .csv file in to listview

I'm trying to load a .csv file into a listview:
ofDialog.Filter = #"CSV Files|*.csv";
ofDialog.Title = #"Select your backlink file...";
ofDialog.FileName = "backlinks.csv";
// is cancel pressed?
if (ofDialog.ShowDialog() == DialogResult.Cancel)
return;
try
{
string filename = ofDialog.FileName;
var lines = File.ReadAllLines(filename);
foreach (string line in lines)
{
var parts = line.Split(' ');
ListViewItem lvi = new ListViewItem(parts[0]);
lvi.SubItems.Add(parts[1]);
listViewMain.Items.Add(lvi);
}
// update count
Helpers.returnMessage(File.ReadAllLines(ofDialog.FileName).Count() + " rows imported.");
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
Helpers.returnMessage(ex.Message);
}
The csv contents looks like:
URL Rating Domain Rating IP From Referring Page URL Referring Page Title Internal Links Count External Links Count Link URL TextPre Link Anchor TextPost Size Type NoFollow Site-wide Image Encoding Alt First Seen Previous Visited Last Check Original
24 89 91.198.174.192 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humbug_(sweet) "Humbug (sweet) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia" 118 16 http://www.bestbritishsweets.co.uk/user/products/large/everton.jpg http://www.bestbritishsweets.co.uk/user/products/large/everton.jpg 12163 href True False False utf8 2013-09-08T15:14:50Z 2015-03-11T01:48:40Z 2015-03-11T01:48:40Z True
There is no delimeter "," like in regular .csv files, and has different spaces between some fields, i'm stuck on the best way to split each section and add to the listview, i have a mental block lol
any help would be appreciated :)
cheers guys
Graham

For opening the CSV file, I would first check it is not a tab separated file, where you can use \t as the delimiter to read the file in a similar method as you are.
Failing this you could use a (very long and complicated) regex string to match the different "columns" as different parts. The regex string would look something like:
\s+([0-9]*)\s+([0-9]*)\s+([0-9]*.[0-9]*.[0-9]*.[0-9]*)\s+([a-zA-Z:\/._\(\)]*)\s+(\"[a-zA-Z0-9 \-\(\),]*\")\s+([0-9]*)\s+([0-9]*)\s+([a-zA-Z:\/._\(\)]*)\s+([a-zA-Z:\/._\(\)]*)\s+([0-9]*)\s+([a-zA-Z]*)\s+(True|False)\s+(True|False)\s+(True|False)\s+([a-z0-9]*)\s+([0-9\-T:Z]*)\s+([0-9\-T:Z]*)\s+([0-9\-T:Z]*)\s+(True|False)
This would return each column as a different group, which you can access as detailed below:
var regex = new Regex(regexString);
foreach(var line in lines)
{
var match = regex.Match(line);
var urlRating = match.Groups[0].Value;
var domainRating = match.Groups[1].Value;
var ip = match.Groups[2].Value;
// ...
}
You can see more about the regex string I have created (and possibly simplify it/extend it for the additional lines) here: https://regex101.com/r/oN4tW3/1
For more on C# regex look here: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.text.regularexpressions.regex(v=vs.110).aspx
Edit: I would avoid the regex method if it is tab seperated as it is more complex and fragile

How to Replace char in text with another one in C#?

i'd appreciate if someone could help!
I need to replace each character in my text(encrypted,which i read from file) with another character, which i have in my Dictionary.
StreamReader st = new StreamReader(#"C:\path of text");
string text = st.ReadToEnd();
st.Close();
char[] textChar = text.ToCharArray(); //splitting text into characters
So, in my Dictionary Dictionary<char, char> keys = new Dictionary<char,char>(); for key i have some letter, say 'n' and for value - another letter, say 'a'. So i need to replace each 'n' with 'a' in my text. Dictionary has 26 letters for keys and 26 letters for values respectively.
Now i try to replace letters and write 'decrypted' text into some file
StreamWriter sw = new StreamWriter(#"path for decrypted file");
foreach(KeyValuePair<char, char> c in keys)
{
for(int i =0; i< textChar.Length; i++)
{
if (textChar.Contains(c.Key))
{ //if text has char as a Key in Dictionary
textChar[i] = keys[c.Key]; //replace with its value
}
else
{
sw.Write(textChar[i]); //if not, just write (in case of punctuatuons in text which i dont want to replace)
}
}
}
st.Close();
file.Close();
This code does not work correctly, because the replacement is wrong.
I'd be so grateful for any help!

Try the code similar to this, I written it without Visual Studio so maybe it needs some corrections :)
string text = File.ReadAllText(#"path for decrypted file");
foreach(var key in keys)
{
text = text.Replace(key.Key, key.Value);
}

try this:
StreamReader st = new StreamReader(#"C:\path of text");
string text = st.ReadToEnd();
st.Close();
foreach(KeyValuePair<char, char> c in keys)
{
text = text.Replace(c.Key, c.Value);
}
String.Replace returns a new string in which all occurrences of a specified Unicode character in this instance are replaced with another specified Unicode character.
Why do you use char[] textChar ? In most cases using string is preferable.

There is a problem with your code ...
What happens if (for example) you have a key (a,z) and a key (z,b). If you just apply a straight swap all your a's will get turned to z's, and then all your z's to b's. (This means all your a's and z's got turned to b's).
You need to convert items to some intermediate value, then you can then decode as necessary.
(a,z)
(z,b)
encode
(a,[26])
(z,[02])
decode
([26],z)
([02],b)

Parse Text File Into Dictionary

I have a text file that has several hundred configuration values. The general format of the configuration data is "Label:Value". Using C# .net, I would like to read these configurations, and use the Values in other portions of the code. My first thought is that I would use a string search to look for the Labels then parse out the values following the labels and add them to a dictionary, but this seems rather tedious considering the number of labels/values that I would have to search for. I am interested to hear some thoughts on a possible architecture to perform this task. I have included a small section of a sample text file that contains some of the labels and values (below). A couple of notes: The Values are not always numeric (as seen in the AUX Serial Number); For whatever reason, the text files were formatted using spaces (\s) rather than tabs (\t). Thanks in advance for any time you spend thinking about this.
Sample Text:
AUX Serial Number: 445P000023 AUX Hardware Rev: 1
Barometric Pressure Slope: -1.452153E-02
Barometric Pressure Intercept: 9.524336E+02

This is a nice little brain tickler. I think this code might be able to point you in the right direction. Keep in mind, this fills a Dictionary<string, string>, so there are no conversions of values into ints or the like. Also, please excuse the mess (and the poor naming conventions). It was a quick write-up based on my train of thought.
Dictionary<string, string> allTheThings = new Dictionary<string, string>();
public void ReadIt()
{
// Open the file into a streamreader
using (System.IO.StreamReader sr = new System.IO.StreamReader("text_path_here.txt"))
{
while (!sr.EndOfStream) // Keep reading until we get to the end
{
string splitMe = sr.ReadLine();
string[] bananaSplits = splitMe.Split(new char[] { ':' }); //Split at the colons
if (bananaSplits.Length < 2) // If we get less than 2 results, discard them
continue;
else if (bananaSplits.Length == 2) // Easy part. If there are 2 results, add them to the dictionary
allTheThings.Add(bananaSplits[0].Trim(), bananaSplits[1].Trim());
else if (bananaSplits.Length > 2)
SplitItGood(splitMe, allTheThings); // Hard part. If there are more than 2 results, use the method below.
}
}
}
public void SplitItGood(string stringInput, Dictionary<string, string> dictInput)
{
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
List<string> fish = new List<string>(); // This list will hold the keys and values as we find them
bool hasFirstValue = false;
foreach (char c in stringInput) // Iterate through each character in the input
{
if (c != ':') // Keep building the string until we reach a colon
sb.Append(c);
else if (c == ':' && !hasFirstValue)
{
fish.Add(sb.ToString().Trim());
sb.Clear();
hasFirstValue = true;
}
else if (c == ':' && hasFirstValue)
{
// Below, the StringBuilder currently has something like this:
// " 235235 Some Text Here"
// We trim the leading whitespace, then split at the first sign of a double space
string[] bananaSplit = sb.ToString()
.Trim()
.Split(new string[] { " " },
StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries);
// Add both results to the list
fish.Add(bananaSplit[0].Trim());
fish.Add(bananaSplit[1].Trim());
sb.Clear();
}
}
fish.Add(sb.ToString().Trim()); // Add the last result to the list
for (int i = 0; i < fish.Count; i += 2)
{
// This for loop assumes that the amount of keys and values added together
// is an even number. If it comes out odd, then one of the lines on the input
// text file wasn't parsed correctly or wasn't generated correctly.
dictInput.Add(fish[i], fish[i + 1]);
}
}

So the only general approach that I can think of, given the format that you're limited to, is to first find the first colon on the line and take everything before it as the label. Skip all whilespace characters until you get to the first non-whitespace character. Take all non-whitespace characters as the value of the label. If there is a colon after the end of that value take everything after the end of the previous value to the colon as the next value and repeat. You'll also probably need to trim whitespace around the labels.
You might be able to capture that meaning with a regex, but it wouldn't likely be a pretty one if you could; I'd avoid it for something this complex unless you're entire development team is very proficient with them.

I would try something like this:
While string contains triple space, replace it with double space.
Replace all ": " and ": " (: with double space) with ":".
Replace all " " (double space) with '\n' (new line).
If line don't contain ':' than skip the line. Else, use string.Split(':'). This way you receive arrays of 2 strings (key and value). Some of them may contain empty characters at the beginning or at the end.
Use string.Trim() to get rid of those empty characters.
Add received key and value to Dictionary.
I am not sure if it solves all your cases but it's a general clue how I would try to do it.
If it works you could think about performance (use StringBuilder instead of string wherever it is possible etc.).

This is probably the dirtiest function I´ve ever written, but it works.
StreamReader reader = new StreamReader("c:/yourFile.txt");
Dictionary<string, string> yourDic = new Dictionary<string, string>();
StreamReader reader = new StreamReader("c:/yourFile.txt");
Dictionary<string, string> yourDic = new Dictionary<string, string>();
while (reader.Peek() >= 0)
{
string line = reader.ReadLine();
string[] data = line.Split(':');
if (line != String.Empty)
{
for (int i = 0; i < data.Length - 1; i++)
{
if (i != 0)
{
bool isPair;
if (i % 2 == 0)
{
isPair = true;
}
else
{
isPair = false;
}
if (isPair)
{
string keyOdd = data[i].Trim();
try { keyOdd = keyOdd.Substring(keyOdd.IndexOf(' ')).TrimStart(); }
catch { }
string valueOdd = data[i + 1].TrimStart();
try { valueOdd = valueOdd.Remove(valueOdd.IndexOf(' ')); } catch{}
yourDic.Add(keyOdd, valueOdd);
}
else
{
string keyPair = data[i].TrimStart();
keyPair = keyPair.Substring(keyPair.IndexOf(' ')).Trim();
string valuePair = data[i + 1].TrimStart();
try { valuePair = valuePair.Remove(valuePair.IndexOf(' ')); } catch { }
yourDic.Add(keyPair, valuePair);
}
}
else
{
string key = data[i].Trim();
string value = data[i + 1].TrimStart();
try { value = value.Remove(value.IndexOf(' ')); } catch{}
yourDic.Add(key, value);
}
}
}
}
How does it works?, well splitting the line you can know what you can get in every position of the array, so I just play with the even and odd values.
You will understand me when you debug this function :D. It fills the Dictionary that you need.

I have another idea. Does values contain spaces? If not you could do like this:
Ignore white spaces until you read some other char (first char of key).
Read string until ':' occures.
Trim key that you get.
Ignore white spaces until you read some other char (first char of value).
Read until you get empty char.
Trim value that you get.
If it is the end than stop. Else, go back to step 1.
Good luck.

Maybe something like this would work, be careful with the ':' character
StreamReader reader = new StreamReader("c:/yourFile.txt");
Dictionary<string, string> yourDic = new Dictionary<string, string>();
while (reader.Peek() >= 0)
{
string line = reader.ReadLine();
yourDic.Add(line.Split(':')[0], line.Split(':')[1]);
}
Anyway, I recommend to organize that file in some way that you´ll always know in what format it comes.

Search and replace values in text file with C#

I have a text file with a certain format. First comes an identifier followed by three spaces and a colon. Then comes the value for this identifier.
ID1 :Value1
ID2 :Value2
ID3 :Value3
What I need to do is searching e.g. for ID2 : and replace Value2 with a new value NewValue2. What would be a way to do this? The files I need to parse won't get very large. The largest will be around 150 lines.

If the file isn't that big you can do a File.ReadAllLines to get a collection of all the lines and then replace the line you're looking for like this
using System.IO;
using System.Linq;
using System.Collections.Generic;
List<string> lines = new List<string>(File.ReadAllLines("file"));
int lineIndex = lines.FindIndex(line => line.StartsWith("ID2 :"));
if (lineIndex != -1)
{
lines[lineIndex] = "ID2 :NewValue2";
File.WriteAllLines("file", lines);
}

Here's a simple solution which also creates a backup of the source file automatically.
The replacements are stored in a Dictionary object. They are keyed on the line's ID, e.g. 'ID2' and the value is the string replacement required. Just use Add() to add more as required.
StreamWriter writer = null;
Dictionary<string, string> replacements = new Dictionary<string, string>();
replacements.Add("ID2", "NewValue2");
// ... further replacement entries ...
using (writer = File.CreateText("output.txt"))
{
foreach (string line in File.ReadLines("input.txt"))
{
bool replacementMade = false;
foreach (var replacement in replacements)
{
if (line.StartsWith(replacement.Key))
{
writer.WriteLine(string.Format("{0} :{1}",
replacement.Key, replacement.Value));
replacementMade = true;
break;
}
}
if (!replacementMade)
{
writer.WriteLine(line);
}
}
}
File.Replace("output.txt", "input.txt", "input.bak");
You'll just have to replace input.txt, output.txt and input.bak with the paths to your source, destination and backup files.

Ordinarily, for any text searching and replacement, I'd suggest some sort of regular expression work, but if this is all you're doing, that's really overkill.
I would just open the original file and a temporary file; read the original a line at a time, and just check each line for "ID2 :"; if you find it, write your replacement string to the temporary file, otherwise, just write what you read. When you've run out of source, close both, delete the original, and rename the temporary file to that of the original.

Something like this should work. It's very simple, not the most efficient thing, but for small files, it would be just fine:
private void setValue(string filePath, string key, string value)
{
string[] lines= File.ReadAllLines(filePath);
for(int x = 0; x < lines.Length; x++)
{
string[] fields = lines[x].Split(':');
if (fields[0].TrimEnd() == key)
{
lines[x] = fields[0] + ':' + value;
File.WriteAllLines(lines);
break;
}
}
}

You can use regex and do it in 3 lines of code
string text = File.ReadAllText("sourcefile.txt");
text = Regex.Replace(text, #"(?i)(?<=^id2\s*?:\s*?)\w*?(?=\s*?$)", "NewValue2",
RegexOptions.Multiline);
File.WriteAllText("outputfile.txt", text);
In the regex, (?i)(?<=^id2\s*?:\s*?)\w*?(?=\s*?$) means, find anything that starts with id2 with any number of spaces before and after :, and replace the following string (any alpha numeric character, excluding punctuations) all the way 'till end of the line. If you want to include punctuations, then replace \w*? with .*?

You can use regexes to achieve this.
Regex re = new Regex(#"^ID\d+ :Value(\d+)\s*$", RegexOptions.IgnoreCase | RegexOptions.Compiled);
List<string> lines = File.ReadAllLines("mytextfile");
foreach (string line in lines) {
string replaced = re.Replace(target, processMatch);
//Now do what you going to do with the value
}
string processMatch(Match m)
{
var number = m.Groups[1];
return String.Format("ID{0} :NewValue{0}", number);
}

Parse Text Row with Empty Spaces

I have a file, the text format is like this:
.640 .070 -.390 -.740 -1.030 -1.410 -1.780 -1.840
-1.360 -.360 .860 1.880 2.340 2.250 1.950 1.710
1.410 .700 -.300 -.840 -.280 1.020 1.860 1.460
.310 -.460 -.320 .350 1.020 1.650 2.430 3.070
2.840 1.440 -.460 -1.650 -1.520 -.520 .250 .190
-.420 -.870 -.800 -.280 .570 1.660 2.500 2.220
.520 -1.560 -2.530 -2.030 -1.200 -1.060 -1.230 -.600
.990 2.300 2.180 .940 -.090 -.140 .320 .470
.330 .420 .830 1.080 1.090 1.530 2.740 3.800
3.410 1.610 -.150 -.900 -1.120 -1.640 -2.140 -1.590
.210 2.210 3.290 3.170 2.380 1.880 2.530 4.210
5.280 3.820 -.040 -3.670 -4.190 -1.260 2.930 5.740
5.980 3.920 .540 -2.890 -5.010 -4.780 -2.150 1.640
4.670 5.540 4.230 1.950 .120 -.470 -.010 .340
-.710 -2.940 -4.070 -1.810 3.000 6.590 6.140 2.750
-.490 -2.460 -4.180 -5.660 -4.800 -.560 4.510 6.630
5.140 2.860 2.230 2.510 1.670 -.440 -2.030 -2.330
Note that there are a lot of white characters between one value and another.
I tried to read each line, and then split the line according to a ' ' character. My code is something like this:
public List<double> Parse(StreamReader sr)
{
var dataList = new List<double>();
while (sr.Peek() >= 0)
{
string line = sr.ReadLine();
if (lineCount > 1)
{
string[] columns = line.Split(' ');
for (var j = 0; j < columns.Length; j++)
{
dataList.Add(double.Parse(columns[j]) ));
}
}
}
return dataList ;
}
The problem with the above code is that it is only able to handle the case where values are separated by a single white character.
Any idea ?

The simplest way is probably to use an overload of String.Split which includes a StringSplitOptions parameter, and specify StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries.
I would also personally just call ReadLine until that returned null, rather than using TextReader.Peek. Aside from anything else, it's more general - it will work even if the underlying stream (if any) doesn't support seeking.

Before you do the split, replace all multi spaces with a single space, something like:
line = System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.Replace(line, #" +", #" ");

You may use the simple one line code for this. Let your text is in the string named input.
string[] values = System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.Split(input, #"\s+");
You will get all values in a string array simply