I'm trying to get the contents of a Text File, delete a line of string, and re-write back to the Text File, deleting the line of string. I'm using StreamReader to get the text, importing into a List, removing the string, then rewriting using StreamWriter. My problems arises somewhere around the removing or writing of the string. Instead of writing back the existing, non deleted contents to the text file, all the text is replaced with :
System.Collections.Generic.List`1[System.String]
My code for this function is as follows:
{
for (int i = deleteDevice.Count - 1; i >= 0; i--)
{
string split = "";
//deleteDevice[i].Split(',').ToString();
List<string> parts = split.Split(',').ToList();
if (parts.Contains(deviceList.SelectedItem.ToString()))
{
deleteDevice.Remove(i.ToString());
}
}
if (deleteDevice.Count != 0) //Error Handling
{
writer.WriteLine(deleteDevice);
}
}
deviceList.Items.Remove(deviceList.SelectedItem);
}
I would just like the script to write back any string that isn't deleted (If there is any), without replacing it. Any help is appreciated, Cheers
You can read all the info from the text file into a list and then remove from the list and rewrite that to the text file.
I would change the list 'deleteDevice' to store a string array instead and use the code below to determine which item to remove.
List<int> toRemove = new List<int>();
int i = 0;
/*build a list of indexes to remove*/
foreach (string[] x in deleteDevice)
{
if (x[0].Contains(deviceList.SelectedItem.ToString()))
{
toRemove.Add(i);
}
i++;
}
/*Remove items from list*/
foreach (int fd in toRemove)
deleteDevice.RemoveAt(fd);
/*write to text file*/
using (StreamWriter writer = new StreamWriter("Devices.txt"))
{
if (deleteDevice.Count != 0) //Error Handling
{
foreach (string[] s in deleteDevice)
{
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
for (int fds = 0; fds < s.Length; fds++ )
{
sb.Append(s[fds] + ",");
}
string line = sb.ToString();
writer.WriteLine(line.Substring(0, line.Length - 1));
}
}
}
This isn't the best solution but should work for your needs. There's probably a much easier way of doing this.
The problem is in the following line:
writer.WriteLine(deleteDevice);
You're writing deleteDevice (I assume this is of type List). List.ToString() returns the type name of the list, because this has no specific implementation. What you want is
foreach(String s in deleteDevice)
{
writer.WriteLine(s);
}
Problems
deleteDevice is of type List<string>, and because it also doesn't overload ToString(), the default behaviour of List<string>.ToString() is to return the name of the type.
Hence your line writer.WriteLine(deleteDevice); writes the string System.Collections.Generic.List1[System.String]`.
Other than that, there are many things wrong with your code...
For example, you do this:
string split = "";
and then on the line afterwards you do this:
List<string> parts = split.Split(',').ToList();
But because split is "", this will always return an empty list.
Solution
To simplify the code, you could first write a helper method that will remove from a file all the lines that match a specified predicate:
public void RemoveUnwantedLines(string filename, Predicate<string> unwanted)
{
var lines = File.ReadAllLines(filename);
File.WriteAllLines(filename, lines.Where(line => !unwanted(line)));
}
Then you can write the predicate something like this (this might not be quite right; I don't really know exactly what your code is doing because it's not compilable and omits some of the types):
string filename = "My Filename";
string deviceToRemove= deviceList.SelectedItem.ToString();
Predicate<string> unwanted = line =>
line.Split(new [] {','})
.Contains(deviceToRemove);
RemoveUnwantedLines(filename, unwanted);
i am assigning images[] with an array that holds images file names with full path of given Directory.
string[] images = DirLoad.FileNamesArray(
IO.Loaders.PathType.full,
IO.Loaders.FileExtension.jpg
);
...now, that images[] stores all the file names i need, as I had to use the full path to get it done,
using Directory.GetFiles()
Next action requires it as a local file name.
(each is then passed as string type parameter to another method)
so my question is :
How can i omit first part - HttpRuntime.AppDomainAppPath ...if it's same in every element of array ?
this is usage example, the string is currentDir i need to trim from each element in images[]
public class IO
{
public class Loaders
{
readonly string currentDir = HttpRuntime.AppDomainAppPath;
public string selecedDirName { get; set; }
/// <summary>
/// assign The Loaders.selectedDir First before calling
/// </summary>
/// <param name="foldertoLoad"></param>
/// <returns></returns>
public enum PathType
{
full, local
}
public enum FileExtension
{
jpg,png,txt,xml,htm,js,aspx,css
}
public string[] FileNamesArray(PathType SelectedPathMode, FileExtension selectedfileType)
{
string thisFolder = "";
string thatFileType= string.Format("*.{0}",selectedfileType.ToString());
switch (SelectedPathMode)
{
case PathType.full:
thisFolder = Path.Combine(currentDir, selecedDirName);
break;
case PathType.local:
thisFolder = selecedDirName;
break;
default:
break;
}
string[] foundArr = Directory.GetFiles(thisFolder, thatFileType);
return foundArr;
}
}
}
Update , this is what i've tried
string fileName;
string[] images = DirLoad.FilesArray(IO.Loaders.PathType.full, IO.Loaders.FileExtention.jpg);
foreach (var currImage in images)
{
int startingAt = DirLoad.currentDir.Length ;
int finalPoint = currImage.Length - startingAt;
fileName = new String(currImage.ToCharArray(startingAt, finalPoint));
baseStyle.Add(string.Format("{0}url({1}) {2}", BackGroundCssProp, fileName, imageProps));
}
return baseStyle.ToArray();
Still I fail to understand, what you're trying to accomplish from the beginning to the end, but..If you are having an array of full paths and you need to get only filenames from these paths, you can do the following:
Actually files may contain random, absolutely different paths, but according to what I have caught from the question, et it be:
var files = Directory.GetFiles(#"path");
Then you may use Path.GetFileName Method to retrieve only filename from these paths, through a simple Enumerable.Select LINQ-statement:
var fileNamesOnly = files.Select(f => Path.GetFileName(f));
I am not entirely sure what you exactly need. For your sentence:
the string is currentDir i need to trim from each element in images[]
You can try the following using LINQ:
string currDir = "SomeString";
string[] images = new string[] { "SomeStringabc1.jpg", "SomeStringabc2.jpg", "SomeStringabc3.jpg", "abc.jpg" };
string[] newImages = images.Select(r => r.StartsWith(currDir)
? r.Replace(currDir, "") : r)
.ToArray();
Or using string.TrimStart
string[] newImages = images.Select(r => r.TrimStart(currDir.ToCharArray())).ToArray();
sorry but it is not clear to me... if you want only the filename from whole path then you can simply use Split for it, split the whole path with special character and use last array element.
once you will get all the path in your "images" array you can try below code.
for example:-
for(i=0;i<images.length;i++)
{
string [] cuttofilename=images[i].split('\');
string filename=cuttofilename[cuttofilename.lentgh-1];
}
Need some ideas how to solve this problem.
I have a template file what describes the line in the text file. For example:
Template
[%f1%]|[%f2%]|[%f3%]"[%f4%]"[%f5%]"[%f6%]
Text file
1234|1234567|123"12345"12"123456
Now i need to read in the fields from the text file. In the template file fields are described with [%some name%]. Allso in the template file there is set what the field separators are, in this example here there are | and ". The lenght of the fields can change through different files but the separators will stay the same. What would be the best way to read in the template and by template read in the text file?
EDIT: Text file has multiple rows, like this:
1234|1234567|123"12345"12"123456"\r\n
1234|field|123"12345"12"asdasd"\r\n
123sd|1234567|123"asdsadf"12"123456"\r\n
45gg|somedata|123"12345"12"somefield"\r\n
EDIT2: Ok, lets make it even harder. Some fields can contain binary data and i know the starting and end position of the binary data field. I should be able to mark those fields in the template and then the parser will know that this field is binary. How to solve this problem?
I would create a regex based on the template and then parse the text file using that:
class Parser
{
private static readonly Regex TemplateRegex =
new Regex(#"\[%(?<field>[^]]+)%\](?<delim>[^[]+)?");
readonly List<string> m_fields = new List<string>();
private readonly Regex m_textRegex;
public Parser(string template)
{
var textRegexString = '^' + TemplateRegex.Replace(template, Evaluator) + '$';
m_textRegex = new Regex(textRegexString);
}
string Evaluator(Match match)
{
// add field name to collection and create regex for the field
var fieldName = match.Groups["field"].Value;
m_fields.Add(fieldName);
string result = "(.*?)";
// add delimiter to the regex, if it exists
// TODO: check, that only last field doesn't have delimiter
var delimGroup = match.Groups["delim"];
if (delimGroup.Success)
{
string delim = delimGroup.Value;
result += Regex.Escape(delim);
}
return result;
}
public IDictionary<string, string> Parse(string text)
{
var match = m_textRegex.Match(text);
var groups = match.Groups;
var result = new Dictionary<string, string>(m_fields.Count);
for (int i = 0; i < m_fields.Count; i++)
result.Add(m_fields[i], groups[i + 1].Value);
return result;
}
}
You can parse the template using regular expressions. An expression like this will match each field definition and separator:
Match m = Regex.Match(template, #"^(\[%(?<name>.+?)%\](?<separator>.)?)+$")
The match will contain two named groups for (name and separator), each of which will contain a number of captures for each time they matched in the input string. In your example, the separator group would have one less capture than the name group.
You can then iterate over the captures, and use the results to extract the fields from the input string and store the values, like this:
if( m.Success )
{
Group name = m.Groups["name"];
Group separator = m.Groups["separator"];
int index = 0;
Dictionary<string, string> fields = new Dictionary<string, string>();
for( int x = 0; x < name.Captures.Count; ++x )
{
int separatorIndex = input.Length;
if( x < separator.Captures.Count )
separatorIndex = input.IndexOf(separator.Captures[x].Value, index);
fields.Add(name.Captures[x].Value, input.Substring(index, separatorIndex - index));
index = separatorIndex + 1;
}
// Do something with results.
}
Obviously in a real program you'd have to account for invalid input and such, which I didn't do here.
I would do this with a few lines of code. Loop through your template row, grabbing all text between "[" as the variable name and everything else as a terminator. Read all the text to the terminal, assign it to the variable name, repeat.
1- Use API for that sscanf(line, format, __arglist) check here
2- Use string split Like:
public IEnumerable<int> GetDataFromLines(string[] lines)
{
//handle the output data
List<int> data = new List<int>();
foreach (string line in lines)
{
string[] seperators = new string[] { "|", "\"" };
string[] results = line.Split(seperators, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries);
foreach (string result in results)
{
data.Add(int.Parse(result));
}
}
return data;
}
Test it with line:
line = "1234|1234567|123\"12345\"12\"123456";
string[] lines = new string[] { line };
GetDataFromLines(lines);
//output list items are:
1234
1234567
123
12345
12
123456
I have a .txt file with a list of 174 different strings. Each string has an unique identifier.
For example:
123|this data is variable|
456|this data is variable|
789|so is this|
etc..
I wish to write a programe in C# that will read the .txt file and display only one of the 174 strings if I specify the ID of the string I want. This is because in the file I have all the data is variable so only the ID can be used to pull the string. So instead of ending up with the example about I get just one line.
eg just
123|this data is variable|
I seem to be able to write a programe that will pull just the ID from the .txt file and not the entire string or a program that mearly reads the whole file and displays it. But am yet to wirte on that does exactly what I need. HELP!
Well the actual string i get out from the txt file has no '|' they were just in the example. An example of the real string would be: 0111111(0010101) where the data in the brackets is variable. The brackets dont exsist in the real string either.
namespace String_reader
{
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
String filepath = #"C:\my file name here";
string line;
if(File.Exists(filepath))
{
StreamReader file = null;
try
{
file = new StreamReader(filepath);
while ((line = file.ReadLine()) !=null)
{
string regMatch = "ID number here"; //this is where it all falls apart.
Regex.IsMatch (line, regMatch);
Console.WriteLine (line);// When program is run it just displays the whole .txt file
}
}
}
finally{
if (file !=null)
file.Close();
}
}
Console.ReadLine();
}
}
}
Use a Regex. Something along the lines of Regex.Match("|"+inputString+"|",#"\|[ ]*\d+\|(.+?)\|").Groups[1].Value
Oh, I almost forgot; you'll need to substitute the d+ for the actual index you want. Right now, that'll just get you the first one.
The "|" before and after the input string makes sure both the index and the value are enclosed in a | for all elements, including the first and last. There's ways of doing a Regex without it, but IMHO they just make your regex more complicated, and less readable.
Assuming you have path and id.
Console.WriteLine(File.ReadAllLines(path).Where(l => l.StartsWith(id + "|")).FirstOrDefault());
Use ReadLines to get a string array of lines then string split on the |
You could use Regex.Split method
FileInfo info = new FileInfo("filename.txt");
String[] lines = info.OpenText().ReadToEnd().Split(' ');
foreach(String line in lines)
{
int id = Convert.ToInt32(line.Split('|')[0]);
string text = Convert.ToInt32(line.Split('|')[1]);
}
Read the data into a string
Split the string on "|"
Read the items 2 by 2: key:value,key:value,...
Add them to a dictionary
Now you can easily find your string with dictionary[key].
first load the hole file to a string.
then try this:
string s = "123|this data is variable| 456|this data is also variable| 789|so is this|";
int index = s.IndexOf("123", 0);
string temp = s.Substring(index,s.Length-index);
string[] splitStr = temp.Split('|');
Console.WriteLine(splitStr[1]);
hope this is what you are looking for.
private static IEnumerable<string> ReadLines(string fspec)
{
using (var reader = new StreamReader(new FileStream(fspec, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read, FileShare.Read)))
{
while (!reader.EndOfStream)
yield return reader.ReadLine();
}
}
var dict = ReadLines("input.txt")
.Select(s =>
{
var split = s.Split("|".ToArray(), 2);
return new {Id = Int32.Parse(split[0]), Text = split[1]};
})
.ToDictionary(kv => kv.Id, kv => kv.Text);
Please note that with .NET 4.0 you don't need the ReadLines function, because there is ReadLines
You can now work with that as any dictionary:
Console.WriteLine(dict[12]);
Console.WriteLine(dict[999]);
No error handling here, please add your own
You can use Split method to divide the entire text into parts sepparated by '|'. Then all even elements will correspond to numbers odd elements - to strings.
StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(filename);
string text = sr.ReadToEnd();
string[] data = text.Split('|');
Then convert certain data elements to numbers and strings, i.e. int[] IDs and string[] Strs. Find the index of the given ID with idx = Array.FindIndex(IDs, ID.Equals) and the corresponding string will be Strs[idx]
List <int> IDs;
List <string> Strs;
for (int i = 0; i < data.Length - 1; i += 2)
{
IDs.Add(int.Parse(data[i]));
Strs.Add(data[i + 1]);
}
idx = Array.FindIndex(IDs, ID.Equals); // we get ID from input
answer = Strs[idx];
Is there any way to format a string by name rather than position in C#?
In python, I can do something like this example (shamelessly stolen from here):
>>> print '%(language)s has %(#)03d quote types.' % \
{'language': "Python", "#": 2}
Python has 002 quote types.
Is there any way to do this in C#? Say for instance:
String.Format("{some_variable}: {some_other_variable}", ...);
Being able to do this using a variable name would be nice, but a dictionary is acceptable too.
There is no built-in method for handling this.
Here's one method
string myString = "{foo} is {bar} and {yadi} is {yada}".Inject(o);
Here's another
Status.Text = "{UserName} last logged in at {LastLoginDate}".FormatWith(user);
A third improved method partially based on the two above, from Phil Haack
Update: This is now built-in as of C# 6 (released in 2015).
String Interpolation
$"{some_variable}: {some_other_variable}"
I have an implementation I just posted to my blog here: http://haacked.com/archive/2009/01/04/fun-with-named-formats-string-parsing-and-edge-cases.aspx
It addresses some issues that these other implementations have with brace escaping. The post has details. It does the DataBinder.Eval thing too, but is still very fast.
Interpolated strings were added into C# 6.0 and Visual Basic 14
Both were introduced through new Roslyn compiler in Visual Studio 2015.
C# 6.0:
return "\{someVariable} and also \{someOtherVariable}" OR
return $"{someVariable} and also {someOtherVariable}"
source: what's new in C#6.0
VB 14:
return $"{someVariable} and also {someOtherVariable}"
source: what's new in VB 14
Noteworthy features (in Visual Studio 2015 IDE):
syntax coloring is supported - variables contained in strings are highlighted
refactoring is supported - when renaming, variables contained in strings get renamed, too
actually not only variable names, but expressions are supported - e.g. not only {index} works, but also {(index + 1).ToString().Trim()}
Enjoy! (& click "Send a Smile" in the VS)
You can also use anonymous types like this:
public string Format(string input, object p)
{
foreach (PropertyDescriptor prop in TypeDescriptor.GetProperties(p))
input = input.Replace("{" + prop.Name + "}", (prop.GetValue(p) ?? "(null)").ToString());
return input;
}
Of course it would require more code if you also want to parse formatting, but you can format a string using this function like:
Format("test {first} and {another}", new { first = "something", another = "something else" })
There doesn't appear to be a way to do this out of the box. Though, it looks feasible to implement your own IFormatProvider that links to an IDictionary for values.
var Stuff = new Dictionary<string, object> {
{ "language", "Python" },
{ "#", 2 }
};
var Formatter = new DictionaryFormatProvider();
// Interpret {0:x} where {0}=IDictionary and "x" is hash key
Console.WriteLine string.Format(Formatter, "{0:language} has {0:#} quote types", Stuff);
Outputs:
Python has 2 quote types
The caveat is that you can't mix FormatProviders, so the fancy text formatting can't be used at the same time.
The framework itself does not provide a way to do this, but you can take a look at this post by Scott Hanselman. Example usage:
Person p = new Person();
string foo = p.ToString("{Money:C} {LastName}, {ScottName} {BirthDate}");
Assert.AreEqual("$3.43 Hanselman, {ScottName} 1/22/1974 12:00:00 AM", foo);
This code by James Newton-King is similar and works with sub-properties and indexes,
string foo = "Top result for {Name} was {Results[0].Name}".FormatWith(student));
James's code relies on System.Web.UI.DataBinder to parse the string and requires referencing System.Web, which some people don't like to do in non-web applications.
EDIT: Oh and they work nicely with anonymous types, if you don't have an object with properties ready for it:
string name = ...;
DateTime date = ...;
string foo = "{Name} - {Birthday}".FormatWith(new { Name = name, Birthday = date });
See https://stackoverflow.com/questions/271398?page=2#358259
With the linked-to extension you can write this:
var str = "{foo} {bar} {baz}".Format(foo=>"foo", bar=>2, baz=>new object());
and you'll get "foo 2 System.Object".
I think the closest you'll get is an indexed format:
String.Format("{0} has {1} quote types.", "C#", "1");
There's also String.Replace(), if you're willing to do it in multiple steps and take it on faith that you won't find your 'variables' anywhere else in the string:
string MyString = "{language} has {n} quote types.";
MyString = MyString.Replace("{language}", "C#").Replace("{n}", "1");
Expanding this to use a List:
List<KeyValuePair<string, string>> replacements = GetFormatDictionary();
foreach (KeyValuePair<string, string> item in replacements)
{
MyString = MyString.Replace(item.Key, item.Value);
}
You could do that with a Dictionary<string, string> too by iterating it's .Keys collections, but by using a List<KeyValuePair<string, string>> we can take advantage of the List's .ForEach() method and condense it back to a one-liner:
replacements.ForEach(delegate(KeyValuePair<string,string>) item) { MyString = MyString.Replace(item.Key, item.Value);});
A lambda would be even simpler, but I'm still on .Net 2.0. Also note that the .Replace() performance isn't stellar when used iteratively, since strings in .Net are immutable. Also, this requires the MyString variable be defined in such a way that it's accessible to the delegate, so it's not perfect yet.
My open source library, Regextra, supports named formatting (amongst other things). It currently targets .NET 4.0+ and is available on NuGet. I also have an introductory blog post about it: Regextra: helping you reduce your (problems){2}.
The named formatting bit supports:
Basic formatting
Nested properties formatting
Dictionary formatting
Escaping of delimiters
Standard/Custom/IFormatProvider string formatting
Example:
var order = new
{
Description = "Widget",
OrderDate = DateTime.Now,
Details = new
{
UnitPrice = 1500
}
};
string template = "We just shipped your order of '{Description}', placed on {OrderDate:d}. Your {{credit}} card will be billed {Details.UnitPrice:C}.";
string result = Template.Format(template, order);
// or use the extension: template.FormatTemplate(order);
Result:
We just shipped your order of 'Widget', placed on 2/28/2014. Your {credit} card will be billed $1,500.00.
Check out the project's GitHub link (above) and wiki for other examples.
private static Regex s_NamedFormatRegex = new Regex(#"\{(?!\{)(?<key>[\w]+)(:(?<fmt>(\{\{|\}\}|[^\{\}])*)?)?\}", RegexOptions.Compiled);
public static StringBuilder AppendNamedFormat(this StringBuilder builder,IFormatProvider provider, string format, IDictionary<string, object> args)
{
if (builder == null) throw new ArgumentNullException("builder");
var str = s_NamedFormatRegex.Replace(format, (mt) => {
string key = mt.Groups["key"].Value;
string fmt = mt.Groups["fmt"].Value;
object value = null;
if (args.TryGetValue(key,out value)) {
return string.Format(provider, "{0:" + fmt + "}", value);
} else {
return mt.Value;
}
});
builder.Append(str);
return builder;
}
public static StringBuilder AppendNamedFormat(this StringBuilder builder, string format, IDictionary<string, object> args)
{
if (builder == null) throw new ArgumentNullException("builder");
return builder.AppendNamedFormat(null, format, args);
}
Example:
var builder = new StringBuilder();
builder.AppendNamedFormat(
#"你好,{Name},今天是{Date:yyyy/MM/dd}, 这是你第{LoginTimes}次登录，积分{Score:{{ 0.00 }}}",
new Dictionary<string, object>() {
{ "Name", "wayjet" },
{ "LoginTimes",18 },
{ "Score", 100.4 },
{ "Date",DateTime.Now }
});
Output:
你好,wayjet,今天是2011-05-04, 这是你第18次登录，积分{ 100.40 }
Check this one:
public static string StringFormat(string format, object source)
{
var matches = Regex.Matches(format, #"\{(.+?)\}");
List<string> keys = (from Match matche in matches select matche.Groups[1].Value).ToList();
return keys.Aggregate(
format,
(current, key) =>
{
int colonIndex = key.IndexOf(':');
return current.Replace(
"{" + key + "}",
colonIndex > 0
? DataBinder.Eval(source, key.Substring(0, colonIndex), "{0:" + key.Substring(colonIndex + 1) + "}")
: DataBinder.Eval(source, key).ToString());
});
}
Sample:
string format = "{foo} is a {bar} is a {baz} is a {qux:#.#} is a really big {fizzle}";
var o = new { foo = 123, bar = true, baz = "this is a test", qux = 123.45, fizzle = DateTime.Now };
Console.WriteLine(StringFormat(format, o));
Performance is pretty ok compared to other solutions.
I doubt this will be possible. The first thing that comes to mind is how are you going to get access to local variable names?
There might be some clever way using LINQ and Lambda expressions to do this however.
Here's one I made a while back. It extends String with a Format method taking a single argument. The nice thing is that it'll use the standard string.Format if you provide a simple argument like an int, but if you use something like anonymous type it'll work too.
Example usage:
"The {Name} family has {Children} children".Format(new { Children = 4, Name = "Smith" })
Would result in "The Smith family has 4 children."
It doesn't do crazy binding stuff like arrays and indexers. But it is super simple and high performance.
public static class AdvancedFormatString
{
/// <summary>
/// An advanced version of string.Format. If you pass a primitive object (string, int, etc), it acts like the regular string.Format. If you pass an anonmymous type, you can name the paramters by property name.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="formatString"></param>
/// <param name="arg"></param>
/// <returns></returns>
/// <example>
/// "The {Name} family has {Children} children".Format(new { Children = 4, Name = "Smith" })
///
/// results in
/// "This Smith family has 4 children
/// </example>
public static string Format(this string formatString, object arg, IFormatProvider format = null)
{
if (arg == null)
return formatString;
var type = arg.GetType();
if (Type.GetTypeCode(type) != TypeCode.Object || type.IsPrimitive)
return string.Format(format, formatString, arg);
var properties = TypeDescriptor.GetProperties(arg);
return formatString.Format((property) =>
{
var value = properties[property].GetValue(arg);
return Convert.ToString(value, format);
});
}
public static string Format(this string formatString, Func<string, string> formatFragmentHandler)
{
if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(formatString))
return formatString;
Fragment[] fragments = GetParsedFragments(formatString);
if (fragments == null || fragments.Length == 0)
return formatString;
return string.Join(string.Empty, fragments.Select(fragment =>
{
if (fragment.Type == FragmentType.Literal)
return fragment.Value;
else
return formatFragmentHandler(fragment.Value);
}).ToArray());
}
private static Fragment[] GetParsedFragments(string formatString)
{
Fragment[] fragments;
if ( parsedStrings.TryGetValue(formatString, out fragments) )
{
return fragments;
}
lock (parsedStringsLock)
{
if ( !parsedStrings.TryGetValue(formatString, out fragments) )
{
fragments = Parse(formatString);
parsedStrings.Add(formatString, fragments);
}
}
return fragments;
}
private static Object parsedStringsLock = new Object();
private static Dictionary<string,Fragment[]> parsedStrings = new Dictionary<string,Fragment[]>(StringComparer.Ordinal);
const char OpeningDelimiter = '{';
const char ClosingDelimiter = '}';
/// <summary>
/// Parses the given format string into a list of fragments.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="format"></param>
/// <returns></returns>
static Fragment[] Parse(string format)
{
int lastCharIndex = format.Length - 1;
int currFragEndIndex;
Fragment currFrag = ParseFragment(format, 0, out currFragEndIndex);
if (currFragEndIndex == lastCharIndex)
{
return new Fragment[] { currFrag };
}
List<Fragment> fragments = new List<Fragment>();
while (true)
{
fragments.Add(currFrag);
if (currFragEndIndex == lastCharIndex)
{
break;
}
currFrag = ParseFragment(format, currFragEndIndex + 1, out currFragEndIndex);
}
return fragments.ToArray();
}
/// <summary>
/// Finds the next delimiter from the starting index.
/// </summary>
static Fragment ParseFragment(string format, int startIndex, out int fragmentEndIndex)
{
bool foundEscapedDelimiter = false;
FragmentType type = FragmentType.Literal;
int numChars = format.Length;
for (int i = startIndex; i < numChars; i++)
{
char currChar = format[i];
bool isOpenBrace = currChar == OpeningDelimiter;
bool isCloseBrace = isOpenBrace ? false : currChar == ClosingDelimiter;
if (!isOpenBrace && !isCloseBrace)
{
continue;
}
else if (i < (numChars - 1) && format[i + 1] == currChar)
{//{{ or }}
i++;
foundEscapedDelimiter = true;
}
else if (isOpenBrace)
{
if (i == startIndex)
{
type = FragmentType.FormatItem;
}
else
{
if (type == FragmentType.FormatItem)
throw new FormatException("Two consequtive unescaped { format item openers were found. Either close the first or escape any literals with another {.");
//curr character is the opening of a new format item. so we close this literal out
string literal = format.Substring(startIndex, i - startIndex);
if (foundEscapedDelimiter)
literal = ReplaceEscapes(literal);
fragmentEndIndex = i - 1;
return new Fragment(FragmentType.Literal, literal);
}
}
else
{//close bracket
if (i == startIndex || type == FragmentType.Literal)
throw new FormatException("A } closing brace existed without an opening { brace.");
string formatItem = format.Substring(startIndex + 1, i - startIndex - 1);
if (foundEscapedDelimiter)
formatItem = ReplaceEscapes(formatItem);//a format item with a { or } in its name is crazy but it could be done
fragmentEndIndex = i;
return new Fragment(FragmentType.FormatItem, formatItem);
}
}
if (type == FragmentType.FormatItem)
throw new FormatException("A format item was opened with { but was never closed.");
fragmentEndIndex = numChars - 1;
string literalValue = format.Substring(startIndex);
if (foundEscapedDelimiter)
literalValue = ReplaceEscapes(literalValue);
return new Fragment(FragmentType.Literal, literalValue);
}
/// <summary>
/// Replaces escaped brackets, turning '{{' and '}}' into '{' and '}', respectively.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="value"></param>
/// <returns></returns>
static string ReplaceEscapes(string value)
{
return value.Replace("{{", "{").Replace("}}", "}");
}
private enum FragmentType
{
Literal,
FormatItem
}
private class Fragment
{
public Fragment(FragmentType type, string value)
{
Type = type;
Value = value;
}
public FragmentType Type
{
get;
private set;
}
/// <summary>
/// The literal value, or the name of the fragment, depending on fragment type.
/// </summary>
public string Value
{
get;
private set;
}
}
}
here is a simple method for any object:
using System.Text.RegularExpressions;
using System.ComponentModel;
public static string StringWithFormat(string format, object args)
{
Regex r = new Regex(#"\{([A-Za-z0-9_]+)\}");
MatchCollection m = r.Matches(format);
var properties = TypeDescriptor.GetProperties(args);
foreach (Match item in m)
{
try
{
string propertyName = item.Groups[1].Value;
format = format.Replace(item.Value, properties[propertyName].GetValue(args).ToString());
}
catch
{
throw new FormatException("The format string is not valid");
}
}
return format;
}
And here how to use it:
DateTime date = DateTime.Now;
string dateString = StringWithFormat("{Month}/{Day}/{Year}", date);
output : 2/27/2012
I implemented this is a simple class that duplicates the functionality of String.Format (except for when using classes). You can either use a dictionary or a type to define fields.
https://github.com/SergueiFedorov/NamedFormatString
C# 6.0 is adding this functionality right into the language spec, so NamedFormatString is for backwards compatibility.
I solved this in a slightly different way to the existing solutions.
It does the core of the named item replacement (not the reflection bit that some have done). It is extremely fast and simple...
This is my solution:
/// <summary>
/// Formats a string with named format items given a template dictionary of the items values to use.
/// </summary>
public class StringTemplateFormatter
{
private readonly IFormatProvider _formatProvider;
/// <summary>
/// Constructs the formatter with the specified <see cref="IFormatProvider"/>.
/// This is defaulted to <see cref="CultureInfo.CurrentCulture">CultureInfo.CurrentCulture</see> if none is provided.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="formatProvider"></param>
public StringTemplateFormatter(IFormatProvider formatProvider = null)
{
_formatProvider = formatProvider ?? CultureInfo.CurrentCulture;
}
/// <summary>
/// Formats a string with named format items given a template dictionary of the items values to use.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="text">The text template</param>
/// <param name="templateValues">The named values to use as replacements in the formatted string.</param>
/// <returns>The resultant text string with the template values replaced.</returns>
public string FormatTemplate(string text, Dictionary<string, object> templateValues)
{
var formattableString = text;
var values = new List<object>();
foreach (KeyValuePair<string, object> value in templateValues)
{
var index = values.Count;
formattableString = ReplaceFormattableItem(formattableString, value.Key, index);
values.Add(value.Value);
}
return String.Format(_formatProvider, formattableString, values.ToArray());
}
/// <summary>
/// Convert named string template item to numbered string template item that can be accepted by <see cref="string.Format(string,object[])">String.Format</see>
/// </summary>
/// <param name="formattableString">The string containing the named format item</param>
/// <param name="itemName">The name of the format item</param>
/// <param name="index">The index to use for the item value</param>
/// <returns>The formattable string with the named item substituted with the numbered format item.</returns>
private static string ReplaceFormattableItem(string formattableString, string itemName, int index)
{
return formattableString
.Replace("{" + itemName + "}", "{" + index + "}")
.Replace("{" + itemName + ",", "{" + index + ",")
.Replace("{" + itemName + ":", "{" + index + ":");
}
}
It is used in the following way:
[Test]
public void FormatTemplate_GivenANamedGuid_FormattedWithB_ShouldFormatCorrectly()
{
// Arrange
var template = "My guid {MyGuid:B} is awesome!";
var templateValues = new Dictionary<string, object> { { "MyGuid", new Guid("{A4D2A7F1-421C-4A1D-9CB2-9C2E70B05E19}") } };
var sut = new StringTemplateFormatter();
// Act
var result = sut.FormatTemplate(template, templateValues);
//Assert
Assert.That(result, Is.EqualTo("My guid {a4d2a7f1-421c-4a1d-9cb2-9c2e70b05e19} is awesome!"));
}
Hope someone finds this useful!
Even though the accepted answer gives some good examples, the .Inject as well as some of the Haack examples do not handle escaping. Many also rely heavily on Regex (slower), or DataBinder.Eval which is not available on .NET Core, and in some other environments.
With that in mind, I've written a simple state machine based parser that streams through characters, writing to a StringBuilder output, character by character. It is implemented as String extension method(s) and can take both a Dictionary<string, object> or object with parameters as input (using reflection).
It handles unlimited levels of {{{escaping}}} and throws FormatException when input contains unbalanced braces and/or other errors.
public static class StringExtension {
/// <summary>
/// Extension method that replaces keys in a string with the values of matching object properties.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="formatString">The format string, containing keys like {foo} and {foo:SomeFormat}.</param>
/// <param name="injectionObject">The object whose properties should be injected in the string</param>
/// <returns>A version of the formatString string with keys replaced by (formatted) key values.</returns>
public static string FormatWith(this string formatString, object injectionObject) {
return formatString.FormatWith(GetPropertiesDictionary(injectionObject));
}
/// <summary>
/// Extension method that replaces keys in a string with the values of matching dictionary entries.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="formatString">The format string, containing keys like {foo} and {foo:SomeFormat}.</param>
/// <param name="dictionary">An <see cref="IDictionary"/> with keys and values to inject into the string</param>
/// <returns>A version of the formatString string with dictionary keys replaced by (formatted) key values.</returns>
public static string FormatWith(this string formatString, IDictionary<string, object> dictionary) {
char openBraceChar = '{';
char closeBraceChar = '}';
return FormatWith(formatString, dictionary, openBraceChar, closeBraceChar);
}
/// <summary>
/// Extension method that replaces keys in a string with the values of matching dictionary entries.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="formatString">The format string, containing keys like {foo} and {foo:SomeFormat}.</param>
/// <param name="dictionary">An <see cref="IDictionary"/> with keys and values to inject into the string</param>
/// <returns>A version of the formatString string with dictionary keys replaced by (formatted) key values.</returns>
public static string FormatWith(this string formatString, IDictionary<string, object> dictionary, char openBraceChar, char closeBraceChar) {
string result = formatString;
if (dictionary == null || formatString == null)
return result;
// start the state machine!
// ballpark output string as two times the length of the input string for performance (avoids reallocating the buffer as often).
StringBuilder outputString = new StringBuilder(formatString.Length * 2);
StringBuilder currentKey = new StringBuilder();
bool insideBraces = false;
int index = 0;
while (index < formatString.Length) {
if (!insideBraces) {
// currently not inside a pair of braces in the format string
if (formatString[index] == openBraceChar) {
// check if the brace is escaped
if (index < formatString.Length - 1 && formatString[index + 1] == openBraceChar) {
// add a brace to the output string
outputString.Append(openBraceChar);
// skip over braces
index += 2;
continue;
}
else {
// not an escaped brace, set state to inside brace
insideBraces = true;
index++;
continue;
}
}
else if (formatString[index] == closeBraceChar) {
// handle case where closing brace is encountered outside braces
if (index < formatString.Length - 1 && formatString[index + 1] == closeBraceChar) {
// this is an escaped closing brace, this is okay
// add a closing brace to the output string
outputString.Append(closeBraceChar);
// skip over braces
index += 2;
continue;
}
else {
// this is an unescaped closing brace outside of braces.
// throw a format exception
throw new FormatException($"Unmatched closing brace at position {index}");
}
}
else {
// the character has no special meaning, add it to the output string
outputString.Append(formatString[index]);
// move onto next character
index++;
continue;
}
}
else {
// currently inside a pair of braces in the format string
// found an opening brace
if (formatString[index] == openBraceChar) {
// check if the brace is escaped
if (index < formatString.Length - 1 && formatString[index + 1] == openBraceChar) {
// there are escaped braces within the key
// this is illegal, throw a format exception
throw new FormatException($"Illegal escaped opening braces within a parameter - index: {index}");
}
else {
// not an escaped brace, we have an unexpected opening brace within a pair of braces
throw new FormatException($"Unexpected opening brace inside a parameter - index: {index}");
}
}
else if (formatString[index] == closeBraceChar) {
// handle case where closing brace is encountered inside braces
// don't attempt to check for escaped braces here - always assume the first brace closes the braces
// since we cannot have escaped braces within parameters.
// set the state to be outside of any braces
insideBraces = false;
// jump over brace
index++;
// at this stage, a key is stored in current key that represents the text between the two braces
// do a lookup on this key
string key = currentKey.ToString();
// clear the stringbuilder for the key
currentKey.Clear();
object outObject;
if (!dictionary.TryGetValue(key, out outObject)) {
// the key was not found as a possible replacement, throw exception
throw new FormatException($"The parameter \"{key}\" was not present in the lookup dictionary");
}
// we now have the replacement value, add the value to the output string
outputString.Append(outObject);
// jump to next state
continue;
} // if }
else {
// character has no special meaning, add it to the current key
currentKey.Append(formatString[index]);
// move onto next character
index++;
continue;
} // else
} // if inside brace
} // while
// after the loop, if all braces were balanced, we should be outside all braces
// if we're not, the input string was misformatted.
if (insideBraces) {
throw new FormatException("The format string ended before the parameter was closed.");
}
return outputString.ToString();
}
/// <summary>
/// Creates a Dictionary from an objects properties, with the Key being the property's
/// name and the Value being the properties value (of type object)
/// </summary>
/// <param name="properties">An object who's properties will be used</param>
/// <returns>A <see cref="Dictionary"/> of property values </returns>
private static Dictionary<string, object> GetPropertiesDictionary(object properties) {
Dictionary<string, object> values = null;
if (properties != null) {
values = new Dictionary<string, object>();
PropertyDescriptorCollection props = TypeDescriptor.GetProperties(properties);
foreach (PropertyDescriptor prop in props) {
values.Add(prop.Name, prop.GetValue(properties));
}
}
return values;
}
}
Ultimately, all the logic boils down into 10 main states - For when the state machine is outside a bracket and likewise inside a bracket, the next character is either an open brace, an escaped open brace, a closed brace, an escaped closed brace, or an ordinary character. Each of these conditions is handled individually as the loop progresses, adding characters to either an output StringBuffer or a key StringBuffer. When a parameter is closed, the value of the key StringBuffer is used to look up the parameter's value in the dictionary, which then gets pushed into the output StringBuffer. At the end, the value of the output StringBuffer is returned.
string language = "Python";
int numquotes = 2;
string output = language + " has "+ numquotes + " language types.";
Edit:
What I should have said was, "No, I don't believe what you want to do is supported by C#. This is as close as you are going to get."