Finding multiple semi predictable patterns in a string - c#

Alright, so I'm writing an application that needs to be able to extract a VAT-Number from an invoice (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VAT_identification_number)
The biggest challenge to overcome here is that as apparent from the wikipedia article I have linked to, each country uses its own format for these VAT-numbers (The Netherlands uses a 14 character number while Germany uses a 11 character number).
In order to extract these numbers, I throw every line from the invoice into an array of strings, and for each string I test if it has a length that is equal to one of the VAT formats, and if that checks out, I check if said string also contains a country code ("NL", "DE", etc).
string[] ProcessedFile = Reader.ProcessFile(Input);
foreach(string S in ProcessedFile)
{
RtBEditor.AppendText(S + "\n");
}
foreach(string X in ProcessedFile)
{
string S = X.Replace(" ", string.Empty);
if (S.Length == 7)
{
if (S.Contains("GBGD"))
{
MessageBox.Show("Land = Groot Britanie (Regering)");
}
}
/*
repeat for all other lenghts and country codes.
*/
The problem with this code is that 1st:
if there is a string that happens to have the same length as one of the VAT-formats, and it has a country code embedded in it, the code will incorrectly think that it has found the VAT-number.
2nd:
In some cases, the VAT-number will be included like "VAT-number: [VAT-number]". In this case, the text that precedes the actual number will be added to its length, making the program unable to detect the actual VAT-Number.
The best way to fix this is in my assumption to somehow isolate the VAT-Number from the strings all together, but I have yet to find a way how to actually do this.
Does anyone by any chance know any potential solution?
Many thanks in advance!
EDIT:
Added a dummy invoice to clarify what kind of data is contained within the invoices.

As someone in the comments had pointed out, the best way to fix this is by using Regex. After trying around a bit I came to the following solution:
public Regex FilterNormaal = new Regex(#"[A-Z]{2}(\d)+B?\d*");
private void BtnUitlezen_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
RtBEditor.Clear();
/*
Temp dummy vatcodes for initial testing.
*/
Form1.Dummy1.VAT = "NL855291886B01";
Form1.Dummy2.VAT = "DE483270846";
Form1.Dummy3.VAT = "SE482167803501";
OCR Reader = new OCR();
/*
Grab and process image
*/
if(openFileDialog1.ShowDialog() == DialogResult.OK)
{
try
{
Input = new Bitmap(openFileDialog1.FileName);
}
catch
{
MessageBox.Show("Please open an image file.");
}
}
string[] ProcessedFile = Reader.ProcessFile(Input);
foreach(string S in ProcessedFile)
{
string X = S.Replace(" ", string.Empty);
RtBEditor.AppendText(X + "\n");
}
foreach (Match M in FilterNormaal.Matches(RtBEditor.Text))
{
MessageBox.Show(M.Value);
}
}
At first, I attempted to iterate through my array of strings to find a match, but for reasons unknown, this did not yield any results. When applying the regex to the entire textbox, it did output the results I needed.

Related

How can i analise millions of strings that merge into each other?

I have millions of strings, around 8GB worth of HEX; each string is 3.2kb in length.
Each of these strings contains multiple parts of data I need to extract.
This is an example of one such string:
GPGGA,104644.091,,,,,0,0,,,M,,M,,*43$GPVTG,0.00,T,,M,0.00,N,0.00,K,N*32Header Test.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ$GPGGA,104645.091,,,,,0,0,,,M,,M,,*42$GPVTG,0.00,T,,M,0.00,N,0.00,K,N*32Header Test.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ ÿÿ!ÿÿ"ÿÿ#ÿÿ$ÿÿ%ÿÿ&ÿÿ'ÿÿ(ÿÿ)ÿÿ*ÿÿ+ÿÿ,ÿÿ-ÿÿ.ÿÿ/ÿÿ0ÿÿ1ÿÿ$GPGGA,104646.091,,,,,0,0,,,M,,M,,*41$GPVTG,0.00,T,,M,0.00,N,0.00,K,N*32Header Test2ÿÿ3ÿÿ4ÿÿ5ÿÿ6ÿÿ7ÿÿ8ÿÿ9ÿÿ:ÿÿ;ÿÿ<ÿÿ=ÿÿ>ÿÿ?ÿÿ#ÿÿAÿÿBÿÿCÿÿDÿÿEÿÿFÿÿGÿÿHÿÿIÿÿJÿÿ$GPGGA,104647.091,,,,,0,0,,,M,,M,,*40$GPVTG,0.00,T,,M,0.00,N,0.00,K,N*32Header TestKÿÿLÿÿMÿÿNÿÿOÿÿPÿÿQÿÿRÿÿSÿÿTÿÿUÿÿVÿÿWÿÿXÿÿYÿÿZÿÿ[ÿÿ\ÿÿ]ÿÿ^ÿÿ_ÿÿ`ÿÿaÿÿbÿÿcÿÿ$GPGGA,104648.091,,,,,0,0,,,M,,M,,*4F$GPVTG,0.00,T,,M,0.00,N,0.00,K,N*32Header Testdÿÿeÿÿfÿÿgÿÿhÿÿiÿÿjÿÿkÿÿlÿÿmÿÿnÿÿoÿÿpÿÿqÿÿrÿÿsÿÿtÿÿuÿÿvÿÿwÿÿxÿÿyÿÿzÿÿ{ÿÿ|ÿÿ$GPGGA,104649.091,,,,,0,0,,,M,,M,,*4E$GPVTG,0.00,T,,M,0.00,N,0.00,K,N*32Header Test}ÿÿ~ÿÿ.ÿÿ€ÿÿ.ÿÿ‚ÿÿƒÿÿ„ÿÿ…ÿÿ†ÿÿ‡ÿÿˆÿÿ‰ÿÿŠÿÿ‹ÿÿŒÿÿ.ÿÿŽÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ‘ÿÿ’ÿÿ“ÿÿ”ÿÿ•ÿÿ$GPGGA,104650.091,,,,,0,0,,,M,,M,,*46$GPVTG,0.00,T,,M,0.00,N,0.00,K,N*32Head
as you can see it is pretty much this repeated:
GPGGA,104644.091,,,,,0,0,,,M,,M,,*43$GPVTG,0.00,T,,M,0.00,N,0.00,K,N*32Header Test.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ$GPGGA,104645.091,,,,,0,0,,,M,,M,,*42$GPVTG,0.00,T,,M,0.00,N,0.00,K,N*32Header Test.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ ÿÿ!ÿÿ"ÿÿ#ÿÿ$ÿÿ%ÿÿ&ÿÿ'ÿÿ(ÿÿ)ÿÿ*ÿÿ+ÿÿ,ÿÿ-ÿÿ.ÿÿ/ÿÿ0ÿÿ1ÿÿ
I want to separate this string into two lists like this:
_GPSList
$GPGGA,104644.091,,,,,0,0,,,M,,M,,*43
$GPVTG,0.00,T,,M,0.00,N,0.00,K,N*
$GPVTG,0.00,T,,M,0.00,N,0.00,K,N
_WavList
32HeaderTest.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ
32HeaderTest.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ.ÿÿ ÿÿ!ÿÿ"ÿÿ#ÿÿ$ÿÿ%ÿÿ&ÿÿ'ÿÿ(ÿÿ)ÿÿ*ÿÿ+ÿÿ,ÿÿ-ÿÿ.ÿÿ/ÿÿ0ÿÿ1ÿÿ
Issue 1:
This repetition isn't containing within a single string, it overflows into the next string. so if some data crosses the end and start of two strings how to I deal with that?
Issue 2: How do I analyse the string and extract only the parts I need?
The solution I'm providing is not a complete answer but more like an idea which might help you get what you want.
Everything else which I present is an assumption on my behalf.
//Assuming your data is stored in a file "yourdatafile"
//Splitting all the text on "$" assuming this will separate GPSData
string[] splittedstring = File.ReadAllText("yourdatafile").Split('$');
//I found an extra string lingering in the sample you provided
//because I splitted on "$", so you gotta take that into account
var GPSList = new List<string>();
var WAVList = new List<string>();
foreach (var str in splittedstring)
{
//So if the string contains "Header" we would want to separate it from GPS data
if (str.Contains("Header"))
{
string temp = str.Remove(str.IndexOf("Header"));
int indexOfAsterisk = temp.LastIndexOf("*");
string stringBeforeAsterisk = str.Substring(0, indexOfAsterisk + 1);
string stringAfterAsterisk = str.Replace(stringBeforeAsterisk, "");
WAVList.Add(stringAfterAsterisk);
GPSList.Add("$" + stringBeforeAsterisk);
}
else
GPSList.Add("$" + str);
}
This provides the exact output as you need, only exception is with that extra string. Also some non-standard characters might look like black blocks.

C# .NET Searching text across hard returns

Since I have not been able to find an resolution via my searching endeavor, I believe I may have a unique problem. Essentially I am creating a gene finding/creation application in c#.NET for my wife and am using RichTextBoxes for her to be able to highlight, color, export, etc the information she needs. I have made several custom methods for it because, as I am sure we all know, RichTextBoxes from Microsoft leave much to the imagination.
Anyway, here is my issue: I need to be able to search for a term across hard returns. The users have strings in 60 letter intervals and they need to search for items that may cross that hard return barrier. For instance let's say I have 2 lines (I will make them short for simplicity):
AAATTTCCCGGG
TTTCCCGGGAAA
If the user runs a search for GGGTTT, I need to be able to pull the result even though there is a line break/hard return in there. For the life of me I cannot think of a good way to do this and still select the result in the RichTextBox. I can always find the result but getting a proper index for the RichTextBox is what eludes me.
If needed I am not against richTextBox.SaveFile() and LoadFile() and parsing the rtf text as a string manually. It doesnt have to be pretty, in this case, it just has to work.
I appreciate any help/guidance you may give.
Here is a relevant snippet:
//textbox 2 search area (examination area)
private void button5_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
textBox3.Text = textBox3.Text.ToUpper();
if (textBox3.Text.Length > 0)
{
List<string> lines = richTextBox2.Lines.ToList();
string allText = "";
foreach (string line in lines)
allText = allText + line.Replace("\r", "").Replace("\n", "");
if (findMultiLineRTB2(allText, textBox3.Text) != -1)
{
richTextBox2.Select(lastMatchForRTB2, textBox3.Text.Length);
richTextBox2.SelectionColor = System.Drawing.Color.White;
richTextBox2.SelectionBackColor = System.Drawing.Color.Blue;
}//end if
else
MessageBox.Show("Reached the end of the sequence", "Finished Searching");
}//end if
}//end method
private int findMultiLineRTB2(string rtbText, string searchString)
{
lastMatchForRTB2 = rtbText.IndexOf(searchString, lastMatchForRTB2 + 1);
return lastMatchForRTB2;
}
So i make an assumption: you want to search a word across all lines where each line is 60 characters long. The desired result is the index of that word.
You just have to build a string that has no line breaks, for example with string.Join:
string allText = string.Join("", richTextBox.Lines);
int indexOf = allText.IndexOf("GGGTTT"); // 9 in your sample

Textbox displaying extra information when text file is parsed

My Goal: I want to parse a file and display it in a textbox. Here's the code (thanks to Aviral Singh).
private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
var path = #"C:\Users\Smith\Desktop\Settings.txt"; //Path to settings file.
RichTextBox rtb = new RichTextBox();
System.IO.StreamReader sis = new System.IO.StreamReader(path);
rtb.Text = sis.ReadToEnd();
sis.Close();
foreach (string line in rtb.Lines)
{
if (line.Contains("Installation Technical Manual:") == true)
{
string numbers = line.Substring(line.IndexOf("Installation Technical Manual:"));
textBox1.Text = numbers;
}
}
}
Text file looks like this:
My Problem: The textbox in my program displays entire line: Installation Technical Manual: (1234567890).
I just want the number with brackets (1234567890). to be displayed in the textbox. What changes should I make to the code to remove the words and just display numbers with brackets around it? Thanks for your help. :)
numbers = "(" + new String(numbers.Where(Char.IsDigit).ToArray()) + ")";
The problem is that IndexOf() is going to give you the starting position of the string which you're asking for the index of. Which in your example is going to be 0, so a Substring call that starts at 0 is going to return you the entire string.
What you really want to do is Substring(IndexOf("Installation Technical Manual:") + "Installation Technical Manual:".Length). That will give you whatever comes after your string.
Assuming you have ':' in your line always,
if(line.Contains(":"))
{
string numbers = line.Split(':')[1];
textBox1.Text = numbers;
}
The reason your code is not working as you have used the substring method as with one parameter, so it is used as :
public string Substring(
int startIndex
)
See: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hxthx5h6.aspx
And you are passing in, line.IndexOf("Installation Technical Manual:")
which will return ).
See here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/k8b1470s.aspx
So you are essentially saying return Substring of string Installation Technical Manual:(number) starting at 0 which basically returns the whole line.

reading a CSV issue

I am trying to read a csv
following is the sample.
"0734306547 ","9780734306548 ","Jane Eyre Pink PP ","Bronte Charlotte ","FRONT LIST",20/03/2013 0:00:00,0,"PAPERBACK","Y","Pen"
Here is the code i am using read CSV
public void readCSV()
{
StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(File.OpenRead(#"C:\abc\21-08-2013\PNZdatafeed.csv"),Encoding.ASCII);
List<string> ISBN = new List<String>();
while (!reader.EndOfStream)
{
string line = reader.ReadLine();
if (!String.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(line))
{
string[] values = line.Split(',');
if (values[9] == "Pen")
{
ISBN.Add(values[1]);
}
}
}
MessageBox.Show(ISBN.Count().ToString());
}
I am not able to compare it values if (values[9] == "Pen") because when i debug the code it says values[9] value is \"Pen\""
How do i get rid of the special characters.?
The problem here is that you're splitting the line every time you find , and leaving the data like that. For example, if this is the line you're reading in:
"A","B","C"
and you split it at commas, you'll get "A", "B", and "C" as your data. According to your description, you don't want quotes around the data.
To throw away quotes around a string:
Check if the leftmost character is ".
If so, check if the rightmost character is ".
If so, remove the leftmost and rightmost characters.
In pseudocode:
if (data.left(1) == "\"" && data.right(1) == "\"") {
data = data.trimleft(1).trimright(1)
}
At this point you might have a few questions (I'm not sure how much experience you have). If any of these apply to you, feel free to ask them, and I'll explain further.
What does "\"" mean?
How do I extract the leftmost/rightmost character of a string?
How do I extract the middle of a string?

Need to pick up line terminators with StreamReader.ReadLine()

I wrote a C# program to read an Excel .xls/.xlsx file and output to CSV and Unicode text. I wrote a separate program to remove blank records. This is accomplished by reading each line with StreamReader.ReadLine(), and then going character by character through the string and not writing the line to output if it contains all commas (for the CSV) or all tabs (for the Unicode text).
The problem occurs when the Excel file contains embedded newlines (\x0A) inside the cells. I changed my XLS to CSV converter to find these new lines (since it goes cell by cell) and write them as \x0A, and normal lines just use StreamWriter.WriteLine().
The problem occurs in the separate program to remove blank records. When I read in with StreamReader.ReadLine(), by definition it only returns the string with the line, not the terminator. Since the embedded newlines show up as two separate lines, I can't tell which is a full record and which is an embedded newline for when I write them to the final file.
I'm not even sure I can read in the \x0A because everything on the input registers as '\n'. I could go character by character, but this destroys my logic to remove blank lines.
I would recommend that you change your architecture to work more like a parser in a compiler.
You want to create a lexer that returns a sequence of tokens, and then a parser that reads the sequence of tokens and does stuff with them.
In your case the tokens would be:
Column data
Comma
End of Line
You would treat '\n' ('\x0a') by its self as an embedded new line, and therefore include it as part of a column data token. A '\r\n' would constitute an End of Line token.
This has the advantages of:
Doing only 1 pass over the data
Only storing a max of 1 lines worth of data
Reusing as much memory as possible (for the string builder and the list)
It's easy to change should your requirements change
Here's a sample of what the Lexer would look like:
Disclaimer: I haven't even compiled, let alone tested, this code, so you'll need to clean it up and make sure it works.
enum TokenType
{
ColumnData,
Comma,
LineTerminator
}
class Token
{
public TokenType Type { get; private set;}
public string Data { get; private set;}
public Token(TokenType type)
{
Type = type;
}
public Token(TokenType type, string data)
{
Type = type;
Data = data;
}
}
private IEnumerable<Token> GetTokens(TextReader s)
{
var builder = new StringBuilder();
while (s.Peek() >= 0)
{
var c = (char)s.Read();
switch (c)
{
case ',':
{
if (builder.Length > 0)
{
yield return new Token(TokenType.ColumnData, ExtractText(builder));
}
yield return new Token(TokenType.Comma);
break;
}
case '\r':
{
var next = s.Peek();
if (next == '\n')
{
s.Read();
}
if (builder.Length > 0)
{
yield return new Token(TokenType.ColumnData, ExtractText(builder));
}
yield return new Token(TokenType.LineTerminator);
break;
}
default:
builder.Append(c);
break;
}
}
s.Read();
if (builder.Length > 0)
{
yield return new Token(TokenType.ColumnData, ExtractText(builder));
}
}
private string ExtractText(StringBuilder b)
{
var ret = b.ToString();
b.Remove(0, b.Length);
return ret;
}
Your "parser" code would then look like this:
public void ConvertXLS(TextReader s)
{
var columnData = new List<string>();
bool lastWasColumnData = false;
bool seenAnyData = false;
foreach (var token in GetTokens(s))
{
switch (token.Type)
{
case TokenType.ColumnData:
{
seenAnyData = true;
if (lastWasColumnData)
{
//TODO: do some error reporting
}
else
{
lastWasColumnData = true;
columnData.Add(token.Data);
}
break;
}
case TokenType.Comma:
{
if (!lastWasColumnData)
{
columnData.Add(null);
}
lastWasColumnData = false;
break;
}
case TokenType.LineTerminator:
{
if (seenAnyData)
{
OutputLine(lastWasColumnData);
}
seenAnyData = false;
lastWasColumnData = false;
columnData.Clear();
}
}
}
if (seenAnyData)
{
OutputLine(columnData);
}
}
You can't change StreamReader to return the line terminators, and you can't change what it uses for line termination.
I'm not entirely clear about the problem in terms of what escaping you're doing, particularly in terms of "and write them as \x0A". A sample of the file would probably help.
It sounds like you may need to work character by character, or possibly load the whole file first and do a global replace, e.g.
x.Replace("\r\n", "\u0000") // Or some other unused character
.Replace("\n", "\\x0A") // Or whatever escaping you need
.Replace("\u0000", "\r\n") // Replace the real line breaks
I'm sure you could do that with a regex and it would probably be more efficient, but I find the long way easier to understand :) It's a bit of a hack having to do a global replace though - hopefully with more information we'll come up with a better solution.
Essentially, a hard-return in Excel (shift+enter or alt+enter, I can't remember) puts a newline that is equivalent to \x0A in the default encoding I use to write my CSV. When I write to CSV, I use StreamWriter.WriteLine(), which outputs the line plus a newline (which I believe is \r\n).
The CSV is fine and comes out exactly how Excel would save it, the problem is when I read it into the blank record remover, I'm using ReadLine() which will treat a record with an embedded newline as a CRLF.
Here's an example of the file after I convert to CSV...
Reference,Name of Individual or Entity,Type,Name Type,Date of Birth,Place of Birth,Citizenship,Address,Additional Information,Listing Information,Control Date,Committees
1050,"Aziz Salih al-Numan
",Individual,Primary Name,1941 or 1945,An Nasiriyah,Iraqi,,Ba’th Party Regional Command Chairman; Former Governor of Karbala and An Najaf Former Minister of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform (1986-1987),Resolution 1483 (2003),6/27/2003,1518 (Iraq)
1050a,???? ???? ???????,Individual,Original script,1941 or 1945,An Nasiriyah,Iraqi,,Ba’th Party Regional Command Chairman; Former Governor of Karbala and An Najaf Former Minister of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform (1986-1987),Resolution 1483 (2003),6/27/2003,1518 (Iraq)
As you can see, the first record has an embedded new-line after al-Numan. When I use ReadLine(), I get '1050,"Aziz Salih al-Numan' and when I write that out, WriteLine() ends that line with a CRLF. I lose the original line terminator. When I use ReadLine() again, I get the line starting with '1050a'.
I could read the entire file in and replace them, but then I'd have to replace them back afterwards. Basically what I want to do is get the line terminator to determine if its \x0a or a CRLF, and then if its \x0A, I'll use Write() and insert that terminator.
I know I'm a little late to the game here, but I was having the same problem and my solution was a lot simpler than most given.
If you are able to determine the column count which should be easy to do since the first line is usually the column titles, you can check your column count against the expected column count. If the column count doesn't equal the expected column count, you simply concatenate the current line with the previous unmatched lines. For example:
string sep = "\",\"";
int columnCount = 0;
while ((currentLine = sr.ReadLine()) != null)
{
if (lineCount == 0)
{
lineData = inLine.Split(new string[] { sep }, StringSplitOptions.None);
columnCount = lineData.length;
++lineCount;
continue;
}
string thisLine = lastLine + currentLine;
lineData = thisLine.Split(new string[] { sep }, StringSplitOptions.None);
if (lineData.Length < columnCount)
{
lastLine += currentLine;
continue;
}
else
{
lastLine = null;
}
......
Thank you so much with your code and some others I came up with the following solution! I have added a link at the bottom to some code I wrote that used some of the logic from this page. I figured I'd give honor where honor was due! Thanks!
Below is a explanation about what I needed:
Try This, I wrote this because I have some very large '|' delimited files that have \r\n inside of some of the columns and I needed to use \r\n as the end of the line delimiter. I was trying to import some files using SSIS packages but because of some corrupted data in the files I was unable to. The File was over 5 GB so it was too large to open and manually fix. I found the answer through looking through lots of Forums to understand how streams work and ended up coming up with a solution that reads each character in a file and spits out the line based on the definitions I added into it. this is for use in a Command Line Application, complete with help :). I hope this helps some other people out, I haven't found a solution quite like it anywhere else, although the ideas were inspired by this forum and others.
https://stackoverflow.com/a/12640862/1582188

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