Help: How to parse out tokens in this string

[Cirene]

I have a long string (MyString) with several token/value combinations.
Here's an example...

NAME: JOHN ADDRESS: 123 MAIN ST COUNTY: SOMEWHERE
PHONE: [phone] x542 EMAIL: SO**@SOME.COM

How can I easily parse out a few of these tokens? For example, if I want to
get the COUNTY, or PHONE?

I would think that the split function would work, but this doesn't seem to
work. Here's an example...

MyString.split("PHONE:")(1).split("EMAIL: ")(0)

My logic: First do a split and get the phone number portion, then "cut off"
everything after the phone number by "splitting" again at the email and
taking the first token, which would contain the phone number.

But this doesn't seem to work. Am I even close?????

Thanks!

[Hans Kesting]

Cirene used his keyboard to write :

I have a long string (MyString) with several token/value combinations. Here's
an example...

NAME: JOHN ADDRESS: 123 MAIN ST COUNTY: SOMEWHERE
PHONE: [phone] x542 EMAIL: SO**@SOME.COM

How can I easily parse out a few of these tokens? For example, if I want to
get the COUNTY, or PHONE?

I would think that the split function would work, but this doesn't seem to
work. Here's an example...

MyString.split("PHONE:")(1).split("EMAIL: ")(0)

My logic: First do a split and get the phone number portion, then "cut off"
everything after the phone number by "splitting" again at the email and
taking the first token, which would contain the phone number.

But this doesn't seem to work. Am I even close?????

Thanks!

A first attempt:
1. look for the first ':'
2. walk back to the last non-space (watch out for the beginning of the
line) -this is your "key"
3. look for the next ':' (watch out for the end of the line)
4. walk back to the first space, walk back again to the first non-space
(to skip the whitespace betweek the key-value pairs) -from the ':' in
step 1 to here is your "value"
5. put key and value in a dictionary
6. repeat (you could have remembered the next key's positions from step
4)

If you know you have a single TAB between the key-value pairs, it would
be much easier: first split on the TAB to get key-value pairs, then
split them on the ':'.
Hans Kesting

[Mark Rae [MVP]]

"Cirene" <ci****@nowhere.comwrote in message
news:eY**************@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...

But this doesn't seem to work. Am I even close?????

Firstly, are the various name/value pairs fixed width or separated?
--
Mark Rae
ASP.NET MVP
http://www.markrae.net

[Cirene]

I have to find out from the client. But, it would be nice to know how to do
it either way...

"Mark Rae [MVP]" <ma**@markNOSPAMrae.netwrote in message
news:%2****************@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...

"Cirene" <ci****@nowhere.comwrote in message
news:eY**************@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...

>But this doesn't seem to work. Am I even close?????

Firstly, are the various name/value pairs fixed width or separated?
--
Mark Rae
ASP.NET MVP
http://www.markrae.net

[Mark Rae [MVP]]

"Cirene" <ci****@nowhere.comwrote in message
news:%2******************@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

[top-posting corrected]

>>But this doesn't seem to work. Am I even close?????

Firstly, are the various name/value pairs fixed width or separated?

I have to find out from the client. But, it would be nice to know how to
do it either way...

I have to find out from the client. But, it would be nice to know how to
do it either way...

If it's fixed width, use Substring()
If it's delimited, use Split()
--
Mark Rae
ASP.NET MVP
http://www.markrae.net

[Cirene]

Thanks Mark! What if it's just variable length token/values, such as in the
example?'

"Mark Rae [MVP]" <ma**@markNOSPAMrae.netwrote in message
news:uY****************@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...

"Cirene" <ci****@nowhere.comwrote in message
news:%2******************@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

[top-posting corrected]

>>>But this doesn't seem to work. Am I even close?????

Firstly, are the various name/value pairs fixed width or separated?

I have to find out from the client. But, it would be nice to know how to
do it either way...

I have to find out from the client. But, it would be nice to know how to
do it either way...

If it's fixed width, use Substring()
If it's delimited, use Split()
--
Mark Rae
ASP.NET MVP
http://www.markrae.net

[Mark Rae [MVP]]

"Cirene" <ci****@nowhere.comwrote in message
news:%2****************@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...

[top-posting corrected again] <======

>>>>But this doesn't seem to work. Am I even close?????

Firstly, are the various name/value pairs fixed width or separated?

I have to find out from the client. But, it would be nice to know how
to do it either way...

I have to find out from the client. But, it would be nice to know how
to do it either way...

If it's fixed width, use Substring()
If it's delimited, use Split()

What if it's just variable length token/values, such as in the example?'

In that case, you'll need to follow Hans' advice...
--
Mark Rae
ASP.NET MVP
http://www.markrae.net

[Cirene]

Thanks!

"Hans Kesting" <ne*********@spamgourmet.comwrote in message
news:ev**************@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...

Cirene used his keyboard to write :

>I have a long string (MyString) with several token/value combinations.
Here's an example...

NAME: JOHN ADDRESS: 123 MAIN ST COUNTY: SOMEWHERE
PHONE: [phone] x542 EMAIL: SO**@SOME.COM

How can I easily parse out a few of these tokens? For example, if I want
to get the COUNTY, or PHONE?

I would think that the split function would work, but this doesn't seem
to work. Here's an example...

MyString.split("PHONE:")(1).split("EMAIL: ")(0)

My logic: First do a split and get the phone number portion, then "cut
off" everything after the phone number by "splitting" again at the email
and taking the first token, which would contain the phone number.

But this doesn't seem to work. Am I even close?????

Thanks!

A first attempt:
1. look for the first ':'
2. walk back to the last non-space (watch out for the beginning of the
line) -this is your "key"
3. look for the next ':' (watch out for the end of the line)
4. walk back to the first space, walk back again to the first non-space
(to skip the whitespace betweek the key-value pairs) -from the ':' in
step 1 to here is your "value"
5. put key and value in a dictionary
6. repeat (you could have remembered the next key's positions from step 4)

If you know you have a single TAB between the key-value pairs, it would be
much easier: first split on the TAB to get key-value pairs, then split
them on the ':'.
Hans Kesting