getting text from text file into an array

Question

I have a text file and contain text below:

Contact Name        |       Contact Number

Muhammad Hassan Ali Khan|       123456
Danish Abdul Ghani      |       165484
Adeel Siddiqui          |       865697
Muhammad Faisal Bilal   |       569745
Arslan                  |       145236

and I want to dispaly it as it is in the gridview and i am using the following code: for checking that i am right working for getting text from a file.

protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            string line = "";
            StreamReader reader = new StreamReader("c:\\Contacts.txt");
            while ((line = reader.ReadLine()) != null)
            {
                string[] arr = line.Split('\t\t|\t\t');
            }
        }

But at this line "string[] arr = line.Split('\t\t|\t\t');" error occur:

Error: Too many characters in character literal

How to remove this error. Kindly suggest me. waiting for reply. Thanks

The apostrophe in Split('') indicates a type of Char`, which can only hold a single character. — Mister Epic
– Mister Epic, Commented Jan 17, 2014 at 10:33

Ehsan · Accepted Answer · 2014-01-17 10:35:30Z

3

You can do this

 string line = "";
 StreamReader reader = new StreamReader("c:\\Contacts.txt");
 while ((line = reader.ReadLine()) != null)
 {
      string[] arr = line.Split('|');
      arr = arr.Select(x => x.Trim()).ToArray();
 }

answered Jan 17, 2014 at 10:35

Ehsan

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1 Comment

Ashigore Over a year ago

This is the only answer that will actually work properly as the original solution of \t\t|\t\t is not correct anyway based on the provided source data.

Ashigore · Accepted Answer · 2014-01-17 10:40:30Z

1

try this;

string[] arr = line.Split(new string[] { "\t\t|\t\t" }, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries);

Edit: ' encapsulates a character, " is for strings.

edited Jan 17, 2014 at 10:40

Ashigore

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answered Jan 17, 2014 at 10:35

ojlovecd

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1 Comment

hasshankhan Over a year ago

ojlovecd: your line of code is working but it gets only the first line Contact Name | Contact Number and I want to get all above text,

Ronnix · Accepted Answer · 2014-01-17 11:31:52Z

1

You have to pass an array of characters to the String.Split() method. The characters from array will be used as separators for splitting.

As the method Split() has a keyword params in its signature, you can omit the direct creation of the array and just pass characters separated by comma.

The examples:

string[] arr = line.Split('|');
string[] another = line.Split('|','-',':','!');

It's well worth a note that one of the overloaded versions of Split() accepts a StringSplitOptions enumeration.

I would recommend you use it with StringSplitOption.RemoveEmptyEntries option. That will prevent appearing of empty elements in the result array. However, this version of the method does not have params keyword, so you do have to create the array.

var arr = mystring.Split(new[] { '|' }, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries);

edited Jan 17, 2014 at 11:31

answered Jan 17, 2014 at 10:35

Ronnix

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1 Comment

Ronnix Over a year ago

Because the String.Split() method actually has a signature with keyword 'params' e.g. String.Split(params char[] separator). So you can omit creation of the array, or even call it like mystring.Split('-',':','|');

Mister Epic · Accepted Answer · 2014-01-17 10:35:23Z

0

If you need to split on multiple characters, use Regex:

   line.Split(value, "'\t\t|\t\t'");

answered Jan 17, 2014 at 10:35

Mister Epic

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