String.Split against FTP file

Question

I am downloading files from an FTP server. Some of the file names have spaces in them but my RegEx doesn't recognise this.

Example:

-rw-r--r-- 1 ftp ftp        8613651 Apr 15  2011 Crystal Reports User Guide.pdf

Code:

string[] splitDownloadFile = Regex.Split(dFile, @"\s+");
string fMonth = splitDownloadFile[5];
string fDate = splitDownloadFile[6];
string fyear = splitDownloadFile[7];
string fName = splitDownloadFile[8];

Is it possible to set the string fName to be the rest of the string?

Why don't use a client to threat this as a proper file over FTP status? — abatishchev, Apr 20 '12 at 13:44
Have you looked at [`FtpWebRequest`](http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.net.ftpwebrequest.aspx)? — abatishchev, Apr 20 '12 at 14:00
@abatishchev This is how is am getting the string http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9946862/download-files-from-an-ftp-server — Noelle, Apr 20 '12 at 14:05
using the ListDirectory instead of the ListDirectoryDetails as you suggest doesn't give me the file details that I need — Noelle, Apr 20 '12 at 14:29

BergmannF · Answer 1 · 2012-04-20T14:44:48.367

8

You could use the string.Split() method from the .NET Framework and specify the maximum number of splits.

This way the last part (filename) would not be split into separate parts.

EDIT: Code

string s = "-rw-r--r-- 1 ftp ftp        8613651 Apr 15  2011 Crystal Reports User Guide.pdf";
string[] c = {" ", "\t"};
string[] p = s.Split(c, 9, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries);
string name = p[8];
Console.WriteLine(name);

edited Apr 20 '12 at 14:44

answered Apr 20 '12 at 13:44

BergmannF

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@L.B: Oops... Too hasty and no testing. – Jason Down Apr 20 '12 at 14:06
Ok I justed tested it and added code that worked for the given example. – BergmannF Apr 20 '12 at 14:09
The OP's use of the \s Regex pattern allows for other whitespace characters (tab, non-breaking, etc.). So would need to add to the array `c` all the charactes that ought to be handled. – Olly Apr 20 '12 at 14:14
That will include the year as part of the name. Should be 9 for the split option and `p[8]` for the name. – Jason Down Apr 20 '12 at 14:15
@JasonDown - Oh good catch - the year probably is not part of the name. – BergmannF Apr 20 '12 at 14:45

score 4 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 20 '12 at 13:53

4

Capturing groups make this easy.

var match = Regex.Match(dFile, @"\S+\s+\S+\s+\S+\s+\S+\s+\S+\s+(?<month>\S+)\s+(?<date>\S+)\s+(?<year>\S+)\s+(?<name>.+)");

string fName = match.Groups["name"].Value;

answered Apr 20 '12 at 13:53

agent-j

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How about `Regex.Match(dFile, @"(\S+\s+){4}+(?\S+)\s+(?\S+)\s+(?\S+)\s+(?.+)");`? – Olly Apr 20 '12 at 14:09

Olly · Accepted Answer · 2012-04-20T14:13:11.987

If you were to use the String.Split method instead of Regex.Split, you could use the String.Split Method (Char[], Int32) overload you can achieve the results you want. You'd need to work out exactly what whitespace characters you need to cater for.

Something like:

string test = "-rw-r--r-- 1 ftp ftp        8613651 Apr 15  2011 Crystal Reports User Guide.pdf";
string[] parts = test.Split(new[] { '\t', ' ' }, 9, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries);

If you really want to use Regex, you could do something like this to reassemble the filename:

string[] again = Regex.Split(test, "\\s+");
var fname = string.Join(" ", again.Skip(8).ToArray());

You would need a using System.Linq; at the top of your code. The filename would, however, be only an approximation of the original one. Multiple consecutive spaces or tab characters would have been replaced with a single space.

abatishchev · Answer 4 · 2012-04-20T13:54:58.373

1

btw you may try to to glue/join all words starting n-th:

string fileName = String.Join("", splitDownloadFile.Skip(7)); // if file name starts from 8th segment

Actually that's just a workaround to improper usage of Split(), but for you knowledge how can you fix that.

edited Apr 20 '12 at 13:54

answered Apr 20 '12 at 13:48

abatishchev

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@agent-j: You will glue them all, will you not? – abatishchev Apr 20 '12 at 13:50
This is assuming the file name will always be the same format. – Xaisoft Apr 20 '12 at 13:50
1

@Xaisoft: This assumes that ftp file status always has file name starting 8th segment. From OP statement, it's true. – abatishchev Apr 20 '12 at 13:51

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Apr 20 '12 at 14:07

If the pattern is consistent, don't split but put into and extract out of named capture groups

string data = "-rw-r--r-- 1 ftp ftp        8613651 Apr 15  2011 Crystal Reports User Guide.pdf";

string pattern = @"
^                       # Beginning Anchor
(?<Permissions>[^\s]+)  # Get permissions into named capture
(?:\s+)                 # Match but don't capture space
(?<Count>\d+)
(?:\s+)
(?<Op1>[^\s]+)          # Continue with capturing valued text into named
(?:\s+)                 # captures and matching, but not capturing space which is ignored.
(?<Op2>[^\s]+)
(?:\s+)
(?<Size>[^\s]+)
(?:\s+)
(?<Month>[^\s]+)
(?:\s+)
(?<Day>[^\s]+)
(?:\s+)
(?<Year>[^\s]+)
(?:\s+)
(?<FileName>[^\r\n]+)";

// Ignore option only applies to the pattern so we can comment it.
var mtGroup = Regex.Match(data, pattern, RegexOptions.IgnorePatternWhitespace).Groups;

Console.WriteLine ("In {0} we created {1}", mtGroup["Month"].Value, mtGroup["FileName"].Value);
/* Output

In Apr we created Crystal Reports User Guide.pdf

*/

String.Split against FTP file

5 Answers5