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Split a string at 2 points

I have a file called file_test1.txt and I want to extract just test1 from the name and place it in a string. Whats the best way of doing this?
E.g.
string fullfile = #"C:\file_test1.txt";
string section = [test1] from fullfile; // <- expected result
I want to be able to split on 'file_' and '.txt' as the 'test1' section could be larger or smaller however the 'file_' and '.txt' will always be the same.

Try Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(fullfile).Substring(5) (or Substring("TEMPLATE_PREFIX".Length))

You can try spilt
var test = Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(fullfile).split('_')[1];

Try following
string fullfile = #"C:\file_test1.txt";
var name = fullfile.Substring(8,fullfile.Length-12)
As c:\file_ and .txt are fixed, You can take Substring starting at index 8 (skip leading name), upto length of total string length - 12 (12 => length of leading name, and trailing extension)

Thought I'd give a solution that uses Split and handles files with multiple underscores:
string.Join("_", Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(file).Split('_').Skip(1));

String.Split() works quite well for my uses:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/b873y76a.aspx

Obviously many ways to accomplish this. Here's yet another approach:
string fullfile = #"C:\file_test1.txt";
int index1 = fullfile.LastIndexOf("file_");
if (index1 != -1)
{
int index2 = fullfile.IndexOf(".", index1);
if (index2 != -1)
{
string section = fullfile.Substring(index1 + 5, index2 - index1 - 5);
}
}

You could also get "test1", or any subsequent filename (assuming your file naming convention remains constant!) using this regular expression:
var defaultRegex = new Regex(#"(?<=_).*(?=.txt)");
var matches = defaultRegex.Matches(fullfile);
var match = matches[0].Value;
The regular expression:
(?<=_).*(?=.txt)
uses positive look behind to find text preceded by '_', and also positive lookahead to find text which has '.txt' ahead of it.

Split a filename in 2 groups

I am making an application which "Filewatches" a folder and when a file is created in there it will automatically be mailed to the customer.
The problem is that i haven't found any information on how to split filenames
For example i have a file called : "Q1040500005.xls"
I need the first 5 characters seperated from the last 5, so basically split it in half (without the extension ofcourse)
And my application has to recognize the "Q1040" and the "500005" as seperate strings.
Which will be recognized in the database which contains The query number (Q1040) and the customer number "500005" the email of the customer and the subject of the queryfile.
How can i do this the easiest way?
Thanks for the help!

Use SubString method http://msdn.microsoft.com/es-es/library/aka44szs(v=vs.80).aspx
int lengthFilename = filename.Length - 4; //substract the string ".xls";
int middleLength = lengthFilename/2;
String filenameA = filename.SubString(0, middleLength);
String filenameB = filename.SubString(middleLength, lengthFilename - middleLength);

Is string.Substring method what you're looking for?

Use String.SubString(int startindex, int length)
String filename = Q1040500005.xls
var queryNumber = filename.Substring(0, 5); //Q1040
var customerNumber = filename.Substring(5, 6); //500005
This assumes your strings are a constant length.
Hope this helps.

You can use string.SubString() here
string a = fileName.SubString(0, 5); // "Q1040"
string b = fileName.SubString(5, 5); // "50000" <- Are you sure you didn't mean "last 6"?
string b2 = fileName.SubString(5, 6); // "500005"
This only works, if both strings have a constant fixed length
Edit:
If on the other hand, both strings can have variable length, I'd recommend you use a separator to divide them ("Q1040-500005.xml"), then use string.Split()
string[] separatedStrings = fileName.Split(new char[] { '-', '.' });
string a = separated[0]; // "Q1040"
string b = separated[1]; // "500005"
string extension = separated[2]; // "xls"

How to extract string at a certain character that is repeated within string?

How can I get "MyLibrary.Resources.Images.Properties" and "Condo.gif" from a "MyLibrary.Resources.Images.Properties.Condo.gif" string.
I also need it to be able to handle something like "MyLibrary.Resources.Images.Properties.legend.House.gif" and return "House.gif" and "MyLibrary.Resources.Images.Properties.legend".
IndexOf LastIndexOf wouldn't work because I need the second to last '.' character.
Thanks in advance!
UPDATE
Thanks for the answers so far but I really need it to be able to handle different namespaces. So really what I'm asking is how to I split on the second to last character in a string?

You can use LINQ to do something like this:
string target = "MyLibrary.Resources.Images.Properties.legend.House.gif";
var elements = target.Split('.');
const int NumberOfFileNameElements = 2;
string fileName = string.Join(
".",
elements.Skip(elements.Length - NumberOfFileNameElements));
string path = string.Join(
".",
elements.Take(elements.Length - NumberOfFileNameElements));
This assumes that the file name part only contains a single . character, so to get it you skip the number of remaining elements.

You can either use a Regex or String.Split with '.' as the separator and return the second-to-last + '.' + last pieces.

You can look for IndexOf("MyLibrary.Resources.Images.Properties."), add that to MyLibrary.Resources.Images.Properties.".Length and then .Substring(..) from that position

If you know exactly what you're looking for, and it's trailing, you could use string.endswith. Something like
if("MyLibrary.Resources.Images.Properties.Condo.gif".EndsWith("Condo.gif"))
If that's not the case check out regular expressions. Then you could do something like
if(Regex.IsMatch("Condo.gif"))
Or a more generic way: split the string on '.' then grab the last two items in the array.

string input = "MyLibrary.Resources.Images.Properties.legend.House.gif";
//if string isn't already validated, make sure there are at least two
//periods here or you'll error out later on.
int index = input.LastIndexOf('.', input.LastIndexOf('.') - 1);
string first = input.Substring(0, index);
string second = input.Substring(index + 1);

Try splitting the string into an array, by separating it by each '.' character.
You will then have something like:
{"MyLibrary", "Resources", "Images", "Properties", "legend", "House", "gif"}
You can then take the last two elements.

Just break down and do it in a char loop:
int NthLastIndexOf(string str, char ch, int n)
{
if (n <= 0) throw new ArgumentException();
for (int idx = str.Length - 1; idx >= 0; --idx)
if (str[idx] == ch && --n == 0)
return idx;
return -1;
}
This is less expensive than trying to coax it using string splitting methods and isn't a whole lot of code.
string s = "1.2.3.4.5";
int idx = NthLastIndexOf(s, '.', 3);
string a = s.Substring(0, idx); // "1.2"
string b = s.Substring(idx + 1); // "3.4.5"

C# how to split a string backwards?

What i'm trying to do is split a string backwards. Meaning right to left.
string startingString = "<span class=\"address\">Hoopeston,, IL 60942</span><br>"
What I would do normally is this.
string[] splitStarting = startingString.Split('>');
so my splitStarting[1] would = "Hoopeston,, IL 60942</span"
then I would do
string[] splitAgain = splitStarting[1].Split('<');
so splitAgain[0] would = "Hoopeston,, IL 60942"
Now this is what I want to do, I want to split by ' ' (a space) reversed for the last 2 instances of ' '.
For example my array would come back like so:
[0]="60942"
[1]="IL"
[2] = "Hoopeston,,"
To make this even harder I only ever want the first two reverse splits, so normally I would do something like this
string[] splitCity,Zip = splitAgain[0].Split(new char[] { ' ' }, 3);
but how would you do that backwards? The reason for that is, is because it could be a two name city so an extra ' ' would break the city name.

Regular expression with named groups to make things so much simpler. No need to reverse strings. Just pluck out what you want.
var pattern = #">(?<city>.*) (?<state>.*) (?<zip>.*?)<";
var expression = new Regex(pattern);
Match m = expression .Match(startingString);
if(m.success){
Console.WriteLine("Zip: " + m.Groups["zip"].Value);
Console.WriteLine("State: " + m.Groups["state"].Value);
Console.WriteLine("City: " + m.Groups["city"].Value);
}
Should give the following results:
Found 1 match:
1. >Las Vegas,, IL 60942< has 3 groups:
1. Las Vegas,, (city)
2. IL (state)
3. 60942 (zip)
String literals for use in programs:
C#
#">(?<city>.*) (?<state>.*) (?<zip>.*?)<"

One possible solution - not optimal but easy to code - is to reverse the string, then to split that string using the "normal" function, then to reverse each of the individual split parts.
Another possible solution is to use regular expressions instead.

I think you should do it like this:
var s = splitAgain[0];
var zipCodeStart = s.LastIndexOf(' ');
var zipCode = s.Substring(zipCodeStart + 1);
s = s.Substring(0, zipCodeStart);
var stateStart = s.LastIndexOf(' ');
var state = s.Substring(stateStart + 1);
var city = s.Substring(0, stateStart );
var result = new [] {zipCode, state, city};
Result will contain what you requested.

If Split could do everything there would be so many overloads that it would become confusing.
Don't use split, just custom code it with substrings and lastIndexOf.
string str = "Hoopeston,, IL 60942";
string[] parts = new string[3];
int place = str.LastIndexOf(' ');
parts[0] = str.Substring(place+1);
int place2 = str.LastIndexOf(' ',place-1);
parts[1] = str.Substring(place2 + 1, place - place2 -1);
parts[2] = str.Substring(0, place2);

You can use a regular expression to get the three parts of the string inside the tag, and use LINQ extensions to get the strings in the right order.
Example:
string startingString = "<span class=\"address\">East St Louis,, IL 60942</span><br>";
string[] city =
Regex.Match(startingString, #"^.+>(.+) (\S+) (\S+?)<.+$")
.Groups.Cast<Group>().Skip(1)
.Select(g => g.Value)
.Reverse().ToArray();
Console.WriteLine(city[0]);
Console.WriteLine(city[1]);
Console.WriteLine(city[2]);
Output:
60942
IL
East St Louis,,

How about
using System.Linq
...
splitAgain[0].Split(' ').Reverse().ToArray()
-edit-
ok missed the last part about multi word cites, you can still use linq though:
splitAgain[0].Split(' ').Reverse().Take(2).ToArray()
would get you the
[0]="60942"
[1]="IL"
The city would not be included here though, you could still do the whole thing in one statement but it would be a little messy:
var elements = splitAgain[0].Split(' ');
var result = elements
.Reverse()
.Take(2)
.Concat( new[ ] { String.Join( " " , elements.Take( elements.Length - 2 ).ToArray( ) ) } )
.ToArray();
So we're
Splitting the string,
Reversing it,
Taking the two first elements (the last two originally)
Then we make a new array with a single string element, and make that string from the original array of elements minus the last 2 elements (Zip and postal code)
As i said, a litle messy, but it will get you the array you want. if you dont need it to be an array of that format you could obviously simplfy the above code a little bit.
you could also do:
var result = new[ ]{
elements[elements.Length - 1], //last element
elements[elements.Length - 2], //second to last
String.Join( " " , elements.Take( elements.Length - 2 ).ToArray( ) ) //rebuild original string - 2 last elements
};

At first I thought you should use Array.Reverse() method, but I see now that it is the splitting on the ' ' (space) that is the issue.
Your first value could have a space in it (ie "New York"), so you dont want to split on spaces.
If you know the string is only ever going to have 3 values in it, then you could use String.LastIndexOf(" ") and then use String.SubString() to trim that off and then do the same again to find the middle value and then you will be left with the first value, with or without spaces.

Was facing similar issue with audio FileName conventions.
Followed this way: String to Array conversion, reverse and split, and reverse each part back to normal.
char[] addressInCharArray = fullAddress.ToCharArray();
Array.Reverse(addressInCharArray);
string[] parts = (new string(addressInCharArray)).Split(new char[] { ' ' }, 3);
string[] subAddress = new string[parts.Length];
int j = 0;
foreach (string part in parts)
{
addressInCharArray = part.ToCharArray();
Array.Reverse(addressInCharArray);
subAddress[j++] = new string(addressInCharArray);
}

String functions

I want to search for a given string, within another string (Ex. find if "something" exists inside "something like this". How can I do the following? :
Know the position in which "something" is located (in the curr. ex. this is = 0.
Extract everything to the left or to the right, up to the char. found (see 1).
Extract a substring beggining where the sought string was found, all the way to X amount of chars (in Visual Basic 6/VBA I would use the Mid function).

string searched = "something like this";
1.
int pos = searched.IndexOf("something");
2.
string start = searched.Substring(0, pos);
string endstring = searched.Substring(pos);
3.
string mid = searched.Substring(pos, x);

Have you looked at the String.SubString() method? You can use the IndexOf() method to see if the substring exists first.

Take a look at the System.String member functions, in particular the IndexOf method.

Use int String.IndexOf(String).

I would do something like this:
string s = "I have something like this";
//question No. 1
int pos = s.IndexOf("something");
//quiestion No. 2
string[] separator = {"something"};
string[] leftAndRightEntries = s.Split(separator, StringSplitOptions.None);
//question No. 3
int x = pos + 10;
string substring = s.Substring(pos, x);

I would avoid using Split, as it's designed to give you multiple results. I would stick with the code in the first example, though the second block should actually read...
string start = searched.Substring(0, pos);
string endstring;
if(pos < searched.Length - 1)
endstring = searched.Substring(pos + "something".Length);
else
endstring = string.Empty
The key difference is accounting for the length of the string to find (hence the rather odd-looking "something".Length, as this example is designed for you to be able to plop in your own variable).