read from txt file and get specific text

Question

What's the best practice reading a *.txt file and get specific regions of the text?

My *.txt files looks like:

[Product code]
MYPRODUCT-CODE123

[List price]
28.10

[Price]
20.30

[Weight]
10

[Quantity]
1

[Min quantity]
1

[Shipping freight]
N

[Free shipping]
N

[Product name]
My product name

Currently I'm reading the txt file like this:

        String[] allfiles = System.IO.Directory.GetFiles(_path, "*.txt", System.IO.SearchOption.AllDirectories);

        foreach (string filePath in allfiles) {


            using (StreamReader sr = File.OpenText(filePath))
            {
                string s = sr.ReadToEnd();

            }
        }

How I'd get the text near [Product code], and so on for other 'key terms' from my txt file

Jonesopolis · Accepted Answer · 2014-12-01T19:42:04.500

2

I would just use a Regular Expression with capture groups to grab pairs, then load them into a Dictionary:

var dict = Regex
               .Matches(str, @"\[([^\]]+)\]([^\[]+)")
               .Cast<Match>()
               .ToDictionary(match => match.Groups[1].ToString(), 
                             match => match.Groups[2].ToString().Trim());

//dict = { [Product Code, MYPRODUCT-CODE123], [List Price, 28.10], [Price, 20.30] ...}

I would strongly recommend you store your data in XML format if you're keeping it all in text files though. It'll save you this hassle later.

edited Dec 01 '14 at 19:42

answered Dec 01 '14 at 19:35

Jonesopolis

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I'm not trying to store something, I'm working on a small app that will create a *.csv file based on a folder structure. I'm definitively agree with you. – el.severo Dec 01 '14 at 20:09

dav_i · Answer 2 · 2014-12-01T19:38:55.337

So you have your string s. Let's take it from there.

Split on new line, put pairs into dictionary, get the item:

var lines = s.Split(
                new[] { Environment.NewLine }, 
                StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries)
             .ToArray();

// pairing thanks to http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1624341/
var dictionary = lines.Where((x, i) => i < lines.Length)
                      .Select((x, i) => 
                          new KeyValuePair<string, string>(
                              x.Trim('[', ']'), // get rid of brackets
                              lines[i + 1]))
                      .ToDictionary(x => x.Key, x => x.Value);

var productCode = dictionary["Product code"];

P.S. Not at a dev machine at the moment so you may need to tweak to compile — dav_i, Dec 01 '14 at 19:34

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 01 '14 at 19:34

System.IO.StreamReader file = 
   new System.IO.StreamReader("Your txt file");

Dictionary<string, string> values = new Dictionary<string, string>();
string keyContainer = "";

while((line = file.ReadLine()) != null)
{
   if(line.Trim() == "")
      continue;

   if(values.Keys.Contains(line.Trin())
      continue;   

   if(line.StartsWith('[') && line.EndsWith("]")
   {
       keyContainer = line.Trim();
       values.Add(line.Trim(), "");
   }
   else
   {
       values[keyContainer] = line.Trim();    
   }
}

With this code you will have all the values of the file in Dictionary. They will look like this:

Key=[Quantity]; Value=1

If you want you can remove the brackets when you save the key in the dictionary.

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Dec 01 '14 at 19:44

Another way to do it:

    string[] lines = input.Replace(Environment.NewLine, "\n").Replace('\r', '\n').Split('\n');
    for (int q = 0; q < lines.Length; q++)
    {
        string line = lines[q];
        if (string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(line))
            continue;

        if (line.StartsWith("[") && line.EndsWith("]"))
        {
            string key="";
            string value="";

            for (int i=1; i<line.Length - 1; i++)
            {
                key=key + line[i];
            }           

            value = lines[q + 1];
            q++;

            dictionary.Add(key, value);
        }
    }

    foreach (string k in dictionary.Keys)
    {
        Console.WriteLine(k + " ==> " + dictionary[k]);
    }

read from txt file and get specific text

4 Answers4