How to split string into a Dictionary<string,string>

Question

I need to create an dictionary by splitting a string like this:

[SenderName]
Some name
[SenderEmail]
Some email address
[ElementTemplate]
Some text for
an element
[BodyHtml]
This will contain
the html body text 
in
multi
lines
[BodyText]
This will be multiline for text
body

The key could be surrounded by anything if that easier, e.g. [!#key#!] i'm interested in getting everything within [] into the dictionary as keys and whatever between the “keys” as values:

key ::  value
SenderName  ::  Some name
SenderEmail  ::  Some email address
ElementTemplate  ::  Some text for
                     an element

Thanks

Can the values contain '[' and ']'? If so, how are they escaped? — Kent Boogaart
– Kent Boogaart, Commented Sep 27, 2009 at 13:14
There's a space before [ElementTemplate] in your example. Is it a glitch or are whitespaces (maybe be even comments) before the [ allowed? Do section identifiers always occupy a whole line? — VolkerK
– VolkerK, Commented Sep 27, 2009 at 13:19
VolkerK: The space before [ElementTemplate] is my error - sorry. Kent: good point, maybe I don't know. The key could be surrounded by anything if that easier, e.g. [!# key#!] — Henrik Stenbæk
– Henrik Stenbæk, Commented Sep 27, 2009 at 13:48

Martin Jonáš · Accepted Answer · 2009-09-27 13:43:40Z

C# 3.0 version -

public static Dictionary<string, string> SplitToDictionary(string input)
{
    Regex regex = new Regex(@"\[([^\]]+)\]([^\[]+)");

    return regex.Matches(input).Cast<Match>().ToDictionary(x => x.Groups[1].Value, x => x.Groups[2].Value.Trim());
}

Oneliner of previous version -

public static Dictionary<string, string> SplitToDictionary(string input)
{
    return new Regex(@"\[([^\]]+)\]([^\[]+)").Matches(input).Cast<Match>().ToDictionary(x => x.Groups[1].Value, x => x.Groups[2].Value.Trim());
}

Standard C# 2.0 version -

public static Dictionary<string, string> SplitToDictionary(string input)
{
    Regex regex = new Regex(@"\[([^\]]+)\]([^\[]+)");

    Dictionary<string, string> result = new Dictionary<string, string>();
    foreach (Match match in regex.Matches(input))
    {
        result.Add(match.Groups[1].Value, match.Groups[2].Value.Trim());
    }

    return result;
}

Rohit · Accepted Answer · 2009-09-27 13:23:32Z

1

Your format looks a lot similar like the Windows INI file format. Google gives me this article when I searched for "C# ini file parser". You could take some ideas from there.

answered Sep 27, 2009 at 13:23

Rohit

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Comments

Samuel Carrijo · Accepted Answer · 2009-09-27 13:21:58Z

0

You can remove the first '[' and all the "]\n" for ']'

Then split you string using '[' as escape. At this time you will have an array like

key]value 0 - SenderName]Some name 1 - SenderEmail]Some email address 2 - ElementTemplate]Some text for an element

Then it's easy. Iterate through it, splitting using ']' as escape. The first element is the key, the second one will be the value.

answered Sep 27, 2009 at 13:21

Samuel Carrijo

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