split a textfile in to two

[kashif73]

I have a texfile with hundreds of records. Each record in a line has 1250 values & values are seperated by a semi colon. IS there a way in VB.NET that i can split each line for example first 1000 values stored in a seperate textfile & the rest 250 in another text file.? and like wise each line of the original text file is split the same way.
I want to import these two new text files then into SQL server 2 tables ( table one with 1000 columns & table 2 with 250 columns).
many thanks for the help.

[Plater]

Well if you read them in, one line at a time.
You can then do a split and put the 1000 into one file and 250 into another file.
Or you can find the index of the 1000th semi-colon and do a substring on it, to get the two seperate pieces for the files.

You will have to be carefull as that much data will eat up memory.

[kashif73]

Thanks Plater for the reply. How do I find index of the 1000th semi-colon and do a substring on it??? Can you please provide an example code. I am really new to vb.net. your help with some code will really get me started here. thanks.

[Curtis Rutland]

Well, if you use Split rather than Substring, you will get an array of strings, each being a separate value. So then you could just copy elements 0-999 to one file, and elements 1000 to array.length to another.

But do make sure to do this one line at a time. Use System.IO.StreamReader for the reading. Also, use StreamWriter for the writing.

[kashif73]

Thanks InserAlias. As per your suggestion please see my code below:

Dim FILE_NAME As String = "C:\IKN Individual\Ind-" & IDN.Text & ".ikn"
        If System.IO.File.Exists(FILE_NAME) = True Then
            Dim lines() As String = File.ReadAllLines(FILE_NAME)
 
            Dim fs As New FileStream(FILE_NAME, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read)
            Dim sr As New StreamReader(fs)
 
 
            Dim LineIn As String
            While sr.Peek <> -1
                LineIn = sr.ReadLine()
 
                'Dim Contents As String = sr.ReadToEnd()
                Dim textdelimiter As String
                textdelimiter = ";"
                Dim splitout = Split(LineIn, textdelimiter)
 
                Dim splitText() As String = LineIn.Split(";")
 
                Dim oWrite As System.IO.StreamWriter
                'Dim oFile As System.IO.File
                oWrite = IO.File.CreateText("C:\IKN Individual\sample.txt")
                Dim J As Integer
 
                For J = 0 To splitText(1000)
                    oWrite.WriteLine(splitText(1000))
                Next
                oWrite.Close()
 
            End While 

I am confused on my FOR NEXT loop, For J = 0 To splitText(1000). How do I write so that first 1000 go to sample.txt & next 250 goes to sample 2.txt. I am attaching my sample txt file from which i get records & split.
Many thanks again foryour help.

[kashif73]

Sorry this is the code i have so far. Also this is reading only 1 line of my text file only....although the split seems to work for the first 1000 & next 220. But I would like you to see & comment on it. please. thanks.

    Private Sub Button2_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button2.Click
 
 
        Dim FILE_NAME As String = "C:\IKN Individual\Ind-" & IDN.Text & ".ikn"
        If System.IO.File.Exists(FILE_NAME) = True Then
 
 
            Dim fs As New FileStream(FILE_NAME, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read)
            Dim sr As New StreamReader(fs)
 
            Dim LineIn As String
 
                        While sr.Peek <> -1
                LineIn = sr.ReadLine()
                Dim textdelimiter As String
                textdelimiter = ";"
                Dim splitText() As String = LineIn.Split(";")
 
                Dim oWrite As System.IO.StreamWriter
                oWrite = IO.File.CreateText("C:\IKN Individual\sample.txt")
                Dim J As Integer
 
                For J = 0 To splitText.Length - 221
                    oWrite.Write(splitText(J) & ";")
                Next
                oWrite.WriteLine()
                oWrite.Close()
 
                oWrite = IO.File.CreateText("C:\IKN Individual\sample2.txt")
                Dim G As Integer
 
                For G = splitText.Length - 222 To splitText.Length - 1
                    oWrite.Write(splitText(G) & ";")
                Next
                oWrite.WriteLine()
                oWrite.Close()
 
            End While
 
            'myReader.Close()
            fs.Close()
            sr.Close()
        Else
 
            MsgBox("The TEXTFILE does Not Exist.")
 
        End If
    End Sub 

[Plater]

Does sr.Peek work like that? I would have gone with while NOT sr.EndOfStream or whatever.
I would also move:
Dim textdelimiter As String
textdelimiter = ";"

out of loops, as you don't really need to be creating and destroying this string every iteration of the loop

[Curtis Rutland]

Look at the example loop they use here at the MSDN. Scroll down to the examples section.

Try using the do loop that they used.

[Curtis Rutland]

You are also going to want to move the creation of your StreamWriters outside the loop. You don't want to overwrite these files each time, you want to append them.

So create them outside the loop, use their WriteLine methods inside the loop, and then close them after the loop is done.

Always remember to close your streams at the end of a program. Always.

[kashif73]

InsertAlias & Plater. Many thanks for your valuable inputs. The code works as desired now. the reading at MSDN was really helpful. my file was overwritten each time the loop was run. taking the streamwriters out of the loop does the trick. Thanks again.

[Curtis Rutland]

Always glad to help.

[kashif73]

InsertAlias one more thing please, how can I read the last character of each line & then write it at the end of each line of first split file? e.g
if my text file record is :
Main text file
Line 1: 1;2;3;4;5;6;7;8;9
Line 2: 4;5;6;3;2;6;7;8;1
Split File 1:
Line1: 1;2;3;4;5;9
Line2: 6;7;8;9

Split File 2 :
Line 1: 4;5;6;3;2;1
Line2: 6;7;8;1

SO how do I get 9 & 1 to be written in my first split file also & like wise for other rows?
Thanks.

[kashif73]

Dont worry I figured it out. Thanks :)

[Plater]

You have all the split pieces in an array, just pick the index of the one you want and write it first (or last)