Develop Reference

How to remove all but the first occurences of a character from a string?

I have a string of text and want to ensure that it contains at most one single occurrence of a specific character (,). Therefore I want to keep the first one, but simply remove all further occurrences of that character.
How could I do this the most elegant way using C#?

This works, but not the most elegant for sure :-)
string a = "12,34,56,789";
int pos = 1 + a.IndexOf(',');
return a.Substring(0, pos) + a.Substring(pos).Replace(",", string.Empty);

You could use a counter variable and a StringBuilder to create the new string efficiently:
var sb = new StringBuilder(text.Length);
int maxCount = 1;
int currentCount = 0;
char specialChar = ',';
foreach(char c in text)
if(c != specialChar || ++currentCount <= maxCount)
sb.Append(c);
text = sb.ToString();
This approach is not the shortest but it's efficient and you can specify the char-count to keep.
Here's a more "elegant" way using LINQ:
int commasFound = 0; int maxCommas = 1;
text = new string(text.Where(c => c != ',' || ++commasFound <= maxCommas).ToArray());
I don't like it because it requires to modify a variable from a query, so it's causing a side-effect.

Regular expressions are elegant, right?
Regex.Replace("Eats, shoots, and leaves.", #"(?<=,.*),", "");
This replaces every comma, as long as there is a comma before it, with nothing.
(Actually, it's probably not elegant - it may only be one line of code, but it may also be O(n^2)...)

If you don't deal with large strings and you reaaaaaaly like Linq oneliners:
public static string KeepFirstOccurence (this string #string, char #char)
{
var index = #string.IndexOf(#char);
return String.Concat(String.Concat(#string.TakeWhile(x => #string.IndexOf(x) < index + 1)), String.Concat(#string.SkipWhile(x=>#string.IndexOf(x) < index)).Replace(#char.ToString(), ""));
}

You could write a function like the following one that would split the string into two sections based on the location of what you were searching (via the String.Split() method) for and it would only remove matches from the second section (using String.Replace()) :
public static string RemoveAllButFirst(string s, string stuffToRemove)
{
// Check if the stuff to replace exists and if not, return the original string
var locationOfStuff = s.IndexOf(stuffToRemove);
if (locationOfStuff < 0)
{
return s;
}
// Calculate where to pull the first string from and then replace the rest of the string
var splitLocation = locationOfStuff + stuffToRemove.Length;
return s.Substring(0, splitLocation) + (s.Substring(splitLocation)).Replace(stuffToRemove,"");
}
You could simply call it by using :
var output = RemoveAllButFirst(input,",");
A prettier approach might actually involve building an extension method that handled this a bit more cleanly :
public static class StringExtensions
{
public static string RemoveAllButFirst(this string s, string stuffToRemove)
{
// Check if the stuff to replace exists and if not, return the
// original string
var locationOfStuff = s.IndexOf(stuffToRemove);
if (locationOfStuff < 0)
{
return s;
}
// Calculate where to pull the first string from and then replace the rest of the string
var splitLocation = locationOfStuff + stuffToRemove.Length;
return s.Substring(0, splitLocation) + (s.Substring(splitLocation)).Replace(stuffToRemove,"");
}
}
which would be called via :
var output = input.RemoveAllButFirst(",");
You can see a working example of it here.

static string KeepFirstOccurance(this string str, char c)
{
int charposition = str.IndexOf(c);
return str.Substring(0, charposition + 1) +
str.Substring(charposition, str.Length - charposition)
.Replace(c, ' ').Trim();
}

Pretty short with Linq; split string into chars, keep distinct set and join back to a string.
text = string.Join("", text.Select(c => c).Distinct());

Compare numeric values as string

I have a method which gets two string. These strings can contain numbers, ASCII chars or both at the same time.
The algorithm works like this:
Split both strings into char Arrays A and B.
Try to parse element Ai and Bi to an int
Compare element Ai with element Bi, in case of integers use direct comparison, in case of chars use ordinal string comparison.
Do work based on the result
Now, I'm wondering: Do I really need to parse the elements to int? I simply could compare each element in an ordinal string comparison and would get the same result, right?
What are the performance implications here? Is parsing and normal comparison faster than ordinal string comparison? Is it slower?
Is my assumption (using ordinal string comparison instead of parsing and comparing) correct?
Here is the method in question:
internal static int CompareComponentString(this string componentString, string other)
{
bool componentEmpty = string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(componentString);
bool otherEmtpy = string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(other);
if (componentEmpty && otherEmtpy)
{
return 0;
}
if (componentEmpty)
{
return -1;
}
if (otherEmtpy)
{
return 1;
}
string[] componentParts = componentString.Split(new[] { '.' }, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries);
string[] otherParts = other.Split(new[] { '.' }, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries);
for (int i = 0; i < Math.Min(componentParts.Length, otherParts.Length); i++)
{
string componentChar = componentParts[i];
string otherChar = otherParts[i];
int componentNumVal, otherNumVal;
bool componentIsNum = int.TryParse(componentChar, out componentNumVal);
bool otherIsNum = int.TryParse(otherChar, out otherNumVal);
if (componentIsNum && otherIsNum)
{
if (componentNumVal.CompareTo(otherNumVal) == 0)
{
continue;
}
return componentNumVal.CompareTo(otherNumVal);
}
else
{
if (componentIsNum)
{
return -1;
}
if (otherIsNum)
{
return 1;
}
int comp = string.Compare(componentChar, otherChar, StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase);
if (comp != 0)
{
return comp;
}
}
}
return componentParts.Length.CompareTo(otherParts.Length);
}
This are strings that might be used. I might add only the part after the minus sign is used.
1.0.0-alpha
1.0.0-alpha.1
1.0.0-alpha.beta
1.0.0-beta.2

With this method you can create a compare string for each of your string. These strings are comparable by simple alphanumeric comparison.
Assumptions:
There is a minus in the string separating the common part and the indiv part
before the minus is always a substring of three integer values divided by a dot
These integer values are not higher than 999 (look at variable "MaxWidth1")
behind the minus is another substring consisting of several parts, also divided by a dot
The second substring's parts may be numeric or alphanumeric with a max. width of 7 (look at "MaxWidth2")
The second substring consists of max. 5 parts (MaxIndivParts)
Put this method wherever you want:
public string VersionNumberCompareString(string versionNumber, int MaxWidth1=3, int MaxWidth2=7,int MaxIndivParts=5){
string result = null;
int posMinus = versionNumber.IndexOf('-');
string part1 = versionNumber.Substring(0, posMinus);
string part2 = versionNumber.Substring(posMinus+1);
var integerValues=part1.Split('.');
result = integerValues[0].PadLeft(MaxWidth1, '0');
result += integerValues[1].PadLeft(MaxWidth1, '0');
result += integerValues[2].PadLeft(MaxWidth1, '0');
var alphaValues = part2.Split('.');
for (int i = 0; i < MaxIndivParts;i++ ) {
if (i <= alphaValues.GetUpperBound(0)) {
var s = alphaValues[i];
int casted;
if (int.TryParse(s, out casted)) //if int: treat as number
result += casted.ToString().PadLeft(MaxWidth2, '0');
else //treat as string
result += s.PadRight(MaxWidth2, ' ');
}
else
result += new string(' ', MaxWidth2);
}
return result; }
You call it like this:
var s1 = VersionNumberCompareString("1.3.0-alpha.1.12");
//"001003000alpha 00000010000012 "
var s2 = VersionNumberCompareString("0.11.4-beta");
//"000011004beta "
var s3 = VersionNumberCompareString("2.10.11-beta.2");
//"002010011beta 0000002 "
Be aware of the final " sign. All strings are of the same length!
Hope this helps...

that's .net comparison logic for ascii strings -
private unsafe static int CompareOrdinalIgnoreCaseHelper(String strA, String strB)
{
Contract.Requires(strA != null);
Contract.Requires(strB != null);
Contract.EndContractBlock();
int length = Math.Min(strA.Length, strB.Length);
fixed (char* ap = &strA.m_firstChar) fixed (char* bp = &strB.m_firstChar)
{
char* a = ap;
char* b = bp;
while (length != 0)
{
int charA = *a;
int charB = *b;
Contract.Assert((charA | charB) <= 0x7F, "strings have to be ASCII");
// uppercase both chars - notice that we need just one compare per char
if ((uint)(charA - 'a') <= (uint)('z' - 'a')) charA -= 0x20;
if ((uint)(charB - 'a') <= (uint)('z' - 'a')) charB -= 0x20;
//Return the (case-insensitive) difference between them.
if (charA != charB)
return charA - charB;
// Next char
a++; b++;
length--;
}
return strA.Length - strB.Length;
}
}
having said that, Unless you have a strict performance constaint, i would say if you get the same result from an already implemented & tested function, its better to reuse it and not to reinvent the wheel.
It saves so much time in implementation, unit testing, debugging & bug fixing time. & helps keep the software simple.

C#: Increment only the last number of a String

I have strings that look like this:
1.23.4.34
12.4.67
127.3.2.21.3
1.1.1.9
This is supposed to be a collection of numbers, separated by '.' symbols, similar to an ip address. I need to increment only the last digit/digits.
Expected Output:
1.23.4.35
12.4.68
127.3.2.21.4
1.1.1.10
Basically, increment whatever the number that is after the last '.' symbol.
I tried this:
char last = numberString[numberString.Length - 1];
int number = Convert.ToInt32(last);
number = number + 1;
If I go with the above code, I just need to replace the characters after the last '.' symbol with the new number. How do I get this done, good folks? :)

It seems to me that one method would be to:
split the string on . to get an array of components.
turn the final component into an integer.
increment that integer.
turn it back into a string.
recombine the components with . characters.
See, for example, the following program:
using System;
namespace ConsoleApplication1 {
class Program {
static void Main(string[] args) {
String original = "1.23.4.34";
String[] components = original.Split('.');
int value = Int32.Parse(components[components.Length - 1]) + 1;
components[components.Length - 1] = value.ToString();
String newstring = String.Join(".",components);
Console.WriteLine(newstring);
}
}
}
which outputs the "next highest" value of:
1.23.4.35

You can use string.LastIndexOf().
string input = "127.3.2.21.4";
int lastIndex = input.LastIndexOf('.');
string lastNumber = input.Substring(lastIndex + 1);
string increment = (int.Parse(lastNumber) + 1).ToString();
string result = string.Concat(input.Substring(0, lastIndex + 1), increment);

You need to extract more than just the last character. What if the last character is a 9 and then you add 1 to it? Then you need to correctly add one to the preceding character as well. For example, the string 5.29 should be processed to become 5.30 and not simply 5.210 or 5.20.
So I suggest you split the string into its number sections. Parse the last section into an integer. Increment it and then create the string again. I leave it as an exercise for the poster to actually write the few lines of code. Good practice!

Something like this:
var ip = "1.23.4.34";
var last = int.Parse(ip.Split(".".ToCharArray(),
StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries).Last());
last = last + 1;
ip = string.Format("{0}.{1}",ip.Remove(ip.LastIndexOf(".")) , last);
If you are dealing with IP, there will be some extra code in case of .034, which should be 035 instead of 35. But that logic is not that complicated.

It's simple as this, use Split() and Join() String methods
String test = "1.23.4.34"; // test string
String[] splits = test.Split('.'); // split by .
splits[splits.Length - 1] = (int.Parse(splits[splits.Length - 1])+1).ToString(); // Increment last integer (Note : Assume all are integers)
String answ = String.Join(".",splits); // Use string join to make the string from string array. uses . separator
Console.WriteLine(answ); // Answer : 1.23.4.35

Using a bit of Linq
int[] int_arr = numberString.Split('.').Select(num => Convert.ToInt32(num)).ToArray();
int_arr[int_arr.Length - 1]++;
numberString = "";
for(int i = 0; i < int_arr.Length; i++) {
if( i == int_arr.Length - 1) {
numberString += int_arr[i].ToString();
}
else {
numberString += (int_arr[i].ToString() + ".");
}
}
Note: on phone so can't test.

My Solution is:
private static string calcNextCode(string value, int index)
{
if (value is null) return "1";
if (value.Length == index + 1) return value + "1";
int lastNum;
int myIndex = value.Length - ++index;
char myValue = value[myIndex];
if (int.TryParse(myValue.ToString(), NumberStyles.Integer, null, out lastNum))
{
var aStringBuilder = new StringBuilder(value);
if (lastNum == 9)
{
lastNum = 0;
aStringBuilder.Remove(myIndex, 1);
aStringBuilder.Insert(myIndex, lastNum);
return calcNextCode(aStringBuilder.ToString(), index++);
}
else
{
lastNum++;
}
aStringBuilder.Remove(myIndex, 1);
aStringBuilder.Insert(myIndex, lastNum);
return aStringBuilder.ToString();
}
return calcNextCode(value, index++);
}

Get a range from two integers

string num = db.SelectNums(id);
string[] numArr = num.Split('-').ToArray();
string num contain for an example "48030-48039";
string[] numArr will therefor contain (48030, 48039).
Now I have two elements, a high and low. I now need to get ALL the numbers from 48030 to 48039. The issue is that it has to be string since there will be telephone numbers with leading zeroes now and then.
Thats why I cannot use Enumerable.Range().ToArray() for this.
Any suggestions? The expected result should be 48030, 48031, 48032, ... , 48039

This should work with your leading zero requirement:
string num = db.SelectNums(id);
string[] split = num.Split('-');
long start = long.Parse(split[0]);
long end = long.Parse(split[1]);
bool includeLeadingZero = split[0].StartsWith("0");
List<string> results = new List<string>();
for(int i = start; i <= end; i++)
{
string result = includeLeadingZero ? "0" : "";
result += i.ToString();
results.Add(result);
}
string[] arrayResults = results.ToArray();
A few things to note:
It assumes your input will be 2 valid integers split by a single hyphen
I am giving you a string array result, personally I would prefer to work with a List<int> in the end
If the first number contains a single leading zero, then all results will contain a single leading zero
It uses long to cater for longer numbers, beware that the max number that will parse is 9,223,372,036,854,775,807, you could double this value (not length) by using ulong

Are you saying this?
int[] nums = new int[numArr.Length];
for (int i = 0; i < numArr.Length; i++)
{
nums[i] = Convert.ToInt32(numArr[i]);
}
Array.Sort(nums);
for (int n = nums[0]; n <= nums[nums.Length - 1]; n++)
{
Console.WriteLine(n);
}
here link

I am expecting your string always have valid two integers, so using Parse instead TryParse
string[] strList = "48030-48039".Split('-').ToArray();
var lst = strList.Select(int.Parse).ToList();
var min = lst.OrderBy(l => l).FirstOrDefault();
var max = lst.OrderByDescending(l => l).FirstOrDefault();
var diff = max - min;
//adding 1 here otherwise 48039 will not be there
var rng = Enumerable.Range(min,diff+1);
If you expecting invalid string
var num = 0;
var lst = (from s in strList where int.TryParse(s, out num) select num).ToList();

This is one way to do it:
public static string[] RangeTest()
{
Boolean leadingZero = false;
string num = "048030-48039"; //db.SelectNums(id);
if (num.StartsWith("0"))
leadingZero = true;
int min = int.Parse(num.Split('-').Min());
int count = int.Parse(num.Split('-').Max()) - min;
if (leadingZero)
return Enumerable.Range(min, count).Select(x => "0" + x.ToString()).ToArray();
else
return Enumerable.Range(min, count).Select(x => "" + x.ToString()).ToArray(); ;
}

You can use string.Format to ensure numbers are formatted with leading zeros. That will make the method work with arbitrary number of leading zeros.
private static string CreateRange(string num)
{
var tokens = num.Split('-').Select(s => s.Trim()).ToArray();
// use UInt64 to allow huge numbers
var start = UInt64.Parse(tokens[0]);
var end = UInt64.Parse(tokens[1]);
// if your start number is '000123', this will create
// a format string with 6 zeros ('000000')
var format = new string('0', tokens[0].Length);
// use StringBuilder to make GC happy.
// (if only there was a Enumerable.Range<ulong> overload...)
var sb = new StringBuilder();
for (var i = start; i <= end; i++)
{
// format ensures that your numbers are padded properly
sb.Append(i.ToString(format));
sb.Append(", ");
}
// trim trailing comma after the last element
if (sb.Length >= 2) sb.Length -= 2;
return sb.ToString();
}
Usage example:
// prints 0000012, 0000013, 0000014
Console.WriteLine( CreateRange("0000012-0000014") );

Three significant issues were brought up in comments:
The phone numbers have enough digits to exceed Int32.MaxValue so
converting to int isn't viable.
The phone numbers can have leading zeros (presumeably for some
international calling?)
The possible range of numbers can theoretically exceed the maximum size of an array (which may have memory issues, and I think may not be represented as a string)
As such, you may need to use long instead of int, and I would suggest using deferred execution if needed for very large ranges.
public static IEnumerable<string> EnumeratePhoneNumbers(string fromAndTo)
{
var split = fromAndTo.Split('-');
return EnumeratePhoneNumbers(split[0], split[1]);
}
public static IEnumerable<string> EnumeratePhoneNumbers(string fromString, string toString)
{
long from = long.Parse(fromString);
long to = long.Parse(toString);
int totalNumberLength = fromString.Length;
for (long phoneNumber = from; phoneNumber <= to; phoneNumber++)
{
yield return phoneNumber.ToString().PadLeft(totalNumberLength, '0');
}
}
This assumes that the padded zeros are already included in the lower bound fromString text. It will iterate and yield out numbers as you need them. This can be useful if you're churning out a lot of numbers and don't need to fill up memory with them, or if you just need the first 10 or 100. For example:
var first100Numbers =
EnumeratePhoneNumbers("0018155500-7018155510")
.Take(100)
.ToArray();
Normally that range would produce 7 billion results which cannot be stored in an array, and might run into memory issues (I'm not even sure if it can be stored in a string); by using deferred execution, you only create the 100 needed.
If you do have a small range, you can still join up your results into a string as you desired:
string numberRanges = String.Join(", ", EnumeratePhoneNumbers("0018155500-0018155510"));
And naturally you can put this array creation into your own helper method:
public static string GetPhoneNumbersListing(string fromAndTo)
{
return String.Join(", ", EnumeratePhoneNumbers("0018155500-0018155510"));
}
So your usage would be:
string numberRanges = GetPhoneNumbersListing("0018155500-0018155510");

A complete solution inspired by the answer by #Dan-o:
Inputs:
Start: 48030
End: 48039
Digits: 6
Expected String Output:
048030, 048031, 048032, 048033, 048034, 048035, 048036, 048037, 048038, 048039
Program:
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
public class Program
{
public static void Main()
{
int first = 48030;
int last = 48039;
int digits = 6;
Console.WriteLine(CreateRange(first, last, digits));
}
public static string CreateRange(int first, int last, int numDigits)
{
string separator = ", ";
var sb = new StringBuilder();
sb.Append(first.ToString().PadLeft(numDigits, '0'));
foreach (int num in Enumerable.Range(first + 1, last - first))
{
sb.Append(separator + num.ToString().PadLeft(numDigits, '0'));
}
return sb.ToString();
}
}

For Each item In Enumerable.Range(min, count).ToArray()
something = item.PadLeft(5, "0")
Next

c# getting a string within another string

i have a string like this:
some_string = "A simple demo of SMS text messaging.\r\n+CMGW: 3216\r\n\r\nOK\r\n\"
im coming from vb.net and i need to know in c#, if i know the position of CMGW, how do i get "3216" out of there?
i know that my start should be the position of CMGW + 6, but how do i make it stop as soon as it finds "\r" ??
again, my end result should be 3216
thank you!

Find the index of \r from the start of where you're interested in, and use the Substring overload which takes a length:
// Production code: add validation here.
// (Check for each index being -1, meaning "not found")
int cmgwIndex = text.IndexOf("CMGW: ");
// Just a helper variable; makes the code below slightly prettier
int startIndex = cmgwIndex + 6;
int crIndex = text.IndexOf("\r", startIndex);
string middlePart = text.Substring(startIndex, crIndex - startIndex);

If you know the position of 3216 then you can just do the following
string inner = some_string.SubString(positionOfCmgw+6,4);
This code will take the substring of some_string starting at the given position and only taking 4 characters.
If you want to be more general you could do the following
int start = positionOfCmgw+6;
int endIndex = some_string.IndexOf('\r', start);
int length = endIndex - start;
string inner = some_string.SubString(start, length);

One option would be to start from your known index and read characters until you hit a non-numeric value. Not the most robust solution, but it will work if you know your input's always going to look like this (i.e., no decimal points or other non-numeric characters within the numeric part of the string).
Something like this:
public static int GetNumberAtIndex(this string text, int index)
{
if (index < 0 || index >= text.Length)
throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException("index");
var sb = new StringBuilder();
for (int i = index; i < text.Length; ++i)
{
char c = text[i];
if (!char.IsDigit(c))
break;
sb.Append(c);
}
if (sb.Length > 0)
return int.Parse(sb.ToString());
else
throw new ArgumentException("Unable to read number at the specified index.");
}
Usage in your case would look like:
string some_string = #"A simple demo of SMS text messaging.\r\n+CMGW: 3216\r\n...";
int index = some_string.IndexOf("CMGW") + 6;
int value = some_string.GetNumberAtIndex(index);
Console.WriteLine(value);
Output:
3216

If you're looking to extract the number portion of 'CMGW: 3216' then a more reliable method would be to use regular expressions. That way you can look for the entire pattern, and not just the header.
var some_string = "A simple demo of SMS text messaging.\r\n+CMGW: 3216\r\n\r\nOK\r\n";
var match = Regex.Match(some_string, #"CMGW\: (?<number>[0-9]+)", RegexOptions.Multiline);
var number = match.Groups["number"].Value;

More general, if you don't know the start position of CMGW but the structure remains as before.
String s;
char[] separators = {'\r'};
var parts = s.Split(separators);
parts.Where(part => part.Contains("CMGW")).Single().Reverse().TakeWhile(c => c != ' ').Reverse();