copy one column from text file to another text file

[semad]

Dear All,

I am a Geophysicist by profession and learning Vb .net online. I am trying to read a large text file with three columns as following:

 IL19623 research_Project 2912394
 IL19625 research_Project 2912425
 IL19627 research_Project 2912425
 IL19629 research_Project 2912450
 IL19631 research_Project 2912450
 IL19633 research_Project 2912477
 IL19635 research_Project 2912477
 IL19637 research_Project 2912504
 IL19639 research_Project 2912504
 IL19641 research_Project 2912521
 IL19643 research_Project 2912521
 IL19645 research_Project 2912542
 IL19647 research_Project 2912542

Each column is seperated from other with different spacing.
I want to copy the first column to a new text file and i want to Sum the third column to get a total. Thanks in advance for the help..
I will highly appreciate if you could tell some useful commands to make mathematical calculations from one textfile to another.
thanks and Best regards
Syed Emad

[genex1000]

Well, as 1st step you could try to split each row in a string array

' *** Read all textfile and put it in a string ****
dim all_db as string = IO.File.ReadAllText(file_name)
dim splitted_string() as string = split(all_db, vbLf & vbCr)
' *** It assume that you have LineFeed + CR for each line 
dim N as integer, Sum1 as integer = 0
For N = 0 to splitted_string.Lenght -1
 ' *** Split again the single item in the array
dim sub_item() as string = split(splitted_string," ")
' *** Now you have another sub-array which contains :
' sub_item(0) = "IL" + your number #1
' Lets cut the "IL" string
sub_item(0) = sub_item(0).replace("IL","")
' sub_item(1) "research....etc etc"
' sub_item(2) = your number #2
' Now you have to add as you want, for eg.
 Sum1 += val(sub_item(0)) + Val(sub_item(2))
next
'************ Now you have in Sum1 the total *******

Of course it can be improved, eg. with Try...Catch construct
and /or write the summ or partial of array in another file.
I hope it will help you....

[semad]

Thanks for your instant reply ...
i actually tried the code, but facing one error in the following line:

 Dim sub_item() As String = Split(splitted_string, " ")

Error= Value of type '1-dimensional array of String' cannot be converted to 'Sting'.

secondly, I am copying the text again as below by defining the start and end of the columns as they are shown very close to each other when i copy paste the text here. The columns are unevenly spaced.
col 1 = 1-7 characters
col 2 = 9-24 characters
col 3 = 26-32 characters

 IL19623 research_Project 2912394
 IL19625 research_Project 2912425
 IL19627 research_Project 2912425
 IL19629 research_Project 2912450
 IL19631 research_Project 2912450
 IL19633 research_Project 2912477
 IL19635 research_Project 2912477
 IL19637 research_Project 2912504
 IL19639 research_Project 2912504
 IL19641 research_Project 2912521
 IL19643 research_Project 2912521
 IL19645 research_Project 2912542
 IL19647 research_Project 2912542

Thanks !!

[genex1000]

You are right. it was my mistake :

Dim sub_item() As String = Split(splitted_string(N), " ")

But it seems that every substring doesnt have a space, so it will retrieve same string
so u can try with

str1 = splitted_string(f).substr(2,5) ' the number of 5 digits
str2 = splitted_string(f).substr(26,7)

then u can convert the string to int

try with that above and let us know

[semad]

hi genex1000

Thanks a lot for the correction. I ran the code, but its only reading first line and only IL19623 .. it is not reading the whole column to the end.
the split is correct as i need to read these characters, but it not going down to the end of the textfile ..

[semad]

can anyone help to get the solution for the above mentioned problem of copying one complete column in a textfile to another textfile ????