How to split lines from Windows text file (/r/n separation)

Question

My question is quite simple. I need to get all text lines from Windows text file. All lines are separated by \r\n symbols. I use String.Split, but its not cool, because it only splits 'by one symbol' leaving empty string that I need to remove with options flag. Is there a better way?

My implementation

string wholefile = GetFromSomeWhere();

// now parsing
string[] lines = operationtext.Split("\r\n".ToCharArray(), StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries);

// ok now I have lines array

UPDATE

File.ReadAllXXX is of no use here coz GetFromSomeWhere is actually RegEx, so I've no file after this point.

definitely check out this proposal. It's almost there, just needs a little more support :) — greatwolf
– greatwolf, Commented Jan 17, 2011 at 22:15

Ani · Accepted Answer · 2010-11-30 12:00:50Z

17

You can use this overload of String.Split, which takes an array of strings that can serve as delimiters:

string[] lines = operationtext.Split(new[] { Environment.NewLine },  
                                     StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries);

Of course, if you already have the file-path, it's much simpler to use File.ReadAllLines:

string[] lines = File.ReadAllLines(filePath);

edited Nov 30, 2010 at 12:00

answered Nov 30, 2010 at 11:55

Ani

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4 Comments

Captain Comic Over a year ago

Cannot use, but what if I see in Reflector what it does

Ani Over a year ago

@Captain Comic: To answer your question, on .NET 3.5, I can see that File.ReadAllLines uses a StreamReader to read the file line by line, loading each line into an ArrayList. It then turns this into a string-array with the ArrayList.ToArray method.

Cody Gray Over a year ago

@Captain Comic: You say "cannot use" without explaining why. I don't understand why either one or both of these two methods won't do exactly what you're asking for.

Captain Comic Over a year ago

Cody, I have no filepath. The regex loads the file parses it and returns me some parts from the original file. If there were String.ReadAllLines(string).

riffnl · Accepted Answer · 2010-11-30 11:53:52Z

4

String.Split does accept a string (like "\r\n"). Not just a chararray.

string[] lines = wholetext.Split(new string[] { "\r\n" }, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries);

answered Nov 30, 2010 at 11:53

riffnl

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Comments

Mark Heath · Accepted Answer · 2010-11-30 11:54:25Z

4

You may find it much easier to simply use File.ReadAllLines() or File.ReadLines()

answered Nov 30, 2010 at 11:54

Mark Heath

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Comments

Rune FS · Accepted Answer · 2011-05-26 11:44:05Z

3

you could use an extension method like the one below and your code would then look like this:

    var lines = operationText.ReadAsLines();

Extension method implementation:

    public static IEnumerable<string> ReadAsLines(this string text)
    {
        TextReader reader = new StringReader(text);
        while(reader.Peek() >= 0)
        {
            yield return reader.ReadLine();
        }
    }

I'm guessing it's not as performant as the split option which is usually very performant but if that's not an issue...

edited May 26, 2011 at 11:44

answered Nov 30, 2010 at 12:45

Rune FS

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