Regex.Split (Multiple Whitespaces)

Question

I have a case where I need to split a string by spaces. Mostly, I have 2 spaces, but in certain instances when I have a negative (-) number, there is only 1 space.

Fresno St.           Wyoming                 3.00   1.12   2.83   2.51   3.69  -3.85  -8.88   1.20   1.00  -2.60  -2.64   6.90  -0.30   1.00   6.97   0.18    .     1.76   8.00    .
Gardner Webb         Campbell                5.00   6.83   7.78   7.97   7.61   7.37   6.69   6.70  10.00   6.32   7.90   5.90   5.90   3.00   3.85   6.50    .     9.00   3.00       
Holy Cross           Boston                -11.50  -9.31  -6.21  -6.22  -6.31  -5.22  -7.83 -16.70 -15.00 -11.29 -11.62 -13.40  -8.90  -1.00  -9.16  -3.15    .      .      .      .

The formatting doesn't quite show the problem, some of the numbers are separated by one space and some are separated by two spaces.

Here is my code to split that does not capture the items separated by one space.

Regex regex = new Regex("\\s{2,}");
string[] bits = regex.Split(tempStr[i]);

I need to fill and array with the same number of elements in each array.

How do I split the string into array elements when I have both 1 space or 2 spaces?

In addition, why this question is different from similar questions. I don't want to split between "Fresno" and "St."

So can I split the string differently for the first two fields which contain "legitimate" elements that contain spaces?

Solution:

It may not be the best but it works, I ended up using String.Substring().

A better idea is to spit on 1 space, then trim each result, and ignore any nulls or empties. — Richard Barker, Jan 05 '21 at 03:44
`Dim splits = input.Split({" "c}, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries)` This didn't have any problem with spaces but I got a few elements with nothing but a dot. — Mary, Jan 05 '21 at 03:50
you can use string split function with to define both double and single space as separator --- `string[] seperators = {" ", " "}; var split = str.Split(seperators, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries);` — user1672994, Jan 05 '21 at 03:51
Added example that shows "Fresno" "St." should not be split. — Trey Balut, Jan 05 '21 at 15:17
@TreyBalut, if you are sure single spaces are preceded only for negative numbers, you can use positive lookahed to get what you desired - https://regex101.com/r/8euCgI/1/ — Prasanna, Jan 05 '21 at 18:47

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 09 '21 at 04:01

Find the right rexex was to difficult/complicated.

Instead I used SubString . Below is a partial snippet of the code I used.

 string temp1 = foo.Substring(0, 10);
                            al.Add(foo.Substring(0, 19));
                            al.Add(foo.Substring(20, 19));
                            al.Add(foo.Substring(42, 7));
                            al.Add(foo.Substring(49, 7));
                            al.Add(foo.Substring(56, 7));
                            al.Add(foo.Substring(63, 7));
                            al.Add(foo.Substring(70, 7));
                            al.Add(foo.Substring(77, 7));

Regex.Split (Multiple Whitespaces)

1 Answers1