Joining lines of strings with a condition

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Hello there.

I have to read a .txt file that has fixed line lenght. Think this line lenght is 12. Below is an example of this .txt :

-first line
-second line
-third line
continues
-fourh l.....

If lenght of a line is bigger than it's fixed lenght, it's written to a new line.

But my problem is, i want to join this new line strings that continues. I want :

-first line
-second line
-third line continues
-fourh l....

But i couldn't accomplish it.
Edit : The contidion is, if line starts with a '-' char, this is a new line. If not, join them.

Any help?

Thanks from now..

Posted 26-Feb-14 21:08pm

ahmetkocadogan

Updated 26-Feb-14 21:09pm

v2

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dan!sh 27-Feb-14 3:16am

What have you tried?

ahmetkocadogan 27-Feb-14 3:21am

I read the lines of .txt file into a List<string>. And tried to join strings with foreach loop, with

if(line.substring(0,1)=="-")
do sth..
else
do sth..

But the logic with do sth.. is wrong. And i couldn't make it. And trying to find a way..

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CPallini · Accepted Answer · 2014-02-26T21:21:00

That is a pretty simple task: at each step you have to read the input file (line by line), collecting and concatenating the read lines until a stop condition is met. The stop condition is either a new start of line (the hiphen) or the end of file. Upon stop condition the collected lines are written to the output file (and the new line, if any, is collected).

OriginalGriff · Accepted Answer · 2014-02-26T21:25:00

Solution 2

It's not exactly complex...

C#

string[] input = new string[] {"-first line",
                               "-second line",
                               "-third line ",
                               "continues",
                               "-fourh l.....",};
List<string> list = new List<string>();
string old = "";
foreach (string s in input)
    {
    string line = s;
    if (!line.StartsWith("-"))
        {
        line = string.Format("{0}{1}", old, line);
        }
    list.Add(line);
    old = line;
    }
input = list.ToArray();

Posted 26-Feb-14 21:25pm

OriginalGriff

Comments

ahmetkocadogan 27-Feb-14 5:59am

I wrote similar codes. I know it looks, and definetely is really easy.
Here is the output of your code.

-first line
-second line
-third line
-third line continues
-fourh l.....

I don't want the '-third line' line. I want only the '-third line continues' line.
This is what i can't do. My brain is away or sth...

OriginalGriff 27-Feb-14 6:09am

So add one line:
if (!line.StartsWith("-"))
{
if (list.Count > 0) list.RemoveAt(list.Count - 1);
line = string.Format("{0}{1}", old, line);
}

ahmetkocadogan 27-Feb-14 6:17am

Thanks dude..

OriginalGriff 27-Feb-14 6:26am

You're welcome!

Matt T Heffron 27-Feb-14 13:57pm

Griff, Really!?
Using
string.Format("{0}{1}", old, line);
instead of
string.Concat(old, line);
or a StringBuilder...
You're getting sloppy in your old age. ;-)

OriginalGriff 27-Feb-14 13:59pm

Well - I was 55 on Monday, so it's allowable for the Alzheimer's to set in! :laugh:

ahmetkocadogan 28-Feb-14 4:36am

That should be acceptable :)

BillWoodruff · Accepted Answer · 2014-02-27T08:45:00

You can make this easier by just reading the entire file into a string using File.ReadAllText [^].

Then, you can perform some simple search-and-replace operations to transform the data you just read:

C#

private string SampleData = @"-first line
-second line
-third line
continues
-fourh l";

private string replaceString = "-";

private string MassageData(string theData)
{
    theData = theData.Replace(Environment.NewLine, " ");
    
    // use this to remove the 'replaceString
    // theData = theData.Replace(replaceString, Environment.NewLine);

    // use this to keep the 'replaceString
    theData = theData.Replace(replaceString, Environment.NewLine + replaceString);
     
    // optional removal of extra spaces ...
    theData = theData.Replace("  ", " ");
    theData = theData.Trim();
}

// test
private void TestTransformData()
{
    string transformedData = MassageData(SampleData);
    Console.WriteLine(transformedData);
}

TcJoshJohnson · Accepted Answer · 2014-02-27T07:10:00

I've found stuff like this to be useful as an extension method as well, so I'm just posting an alternative for future visitors.

C#

public static string[] JoinWithCondition(this string[] pInput, char pCondition)
{
	string input = string.Join(string.Empty, pInput);
	List<string> output = new List<string>();
	string value;
	
	for (int i = 0; i < input.Length; i++)
	{
		if (input[i] == pCondition)
		{
			if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(value)) output.Add(value);
			value = string.Empty;
			
			continue; // remove to keep condition character
		}
		
		value += input[i];
	}
	
	return output.ToArray();
}</string></string>

Joining lines of strings with a condition

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