Need help with string manipulation

V

vbMarkO

Centurion
Joined
Aug 19, 2005
Messages
157
Ok here is what I am trying to do first the contents of the string

I have an array that has forty or more of the following each element of the array contains data like this I need to parse

Code: 
Name: Lanton Lamho Race: White Sex: Male Age: 18 DOB: 05-10-90 Height: 5’06 Weight: 152 Hair: Blk Eyes: Brown TPD#Lanton Lamho broke into the Quickie Mart located at 5310 S. Peoria Ave. The suspect used a manhole cover to throw...

NOTE!!!!!! Some of the names are first middle last not just first and last

Anyway I need

I need descriptions in labels and info in other labels

like this

Name: John Smith
Race: White
Sex: Male
Age: 25
ect ect until it gets to the TPD# I need that stripped and all following put into a label of its own

ie; Guy did what ever he did and he is in trouble for it LOL

anyway .... I tried a multiple delimiter spit but the results left empty elements of the array ....

Anyone got some ideas how I might best parse this?

Heres the code I used and tried to modify but it wont work exactly right

Code: 
 Dim values As String

        values = "Name: John Smith Race: White DOB: 1/22/60"

        Dim sites As String() = Nothing

        Dim sep(3) As Char

        sep(0) = ": "

        sep(1) = " Race:"

        sep(2) = " DOB:"

        sites = values.Split(sep, 9)

        Dim s As String

        For Each s In sites
            rtb1.Text = rtb1.Text & s.Trim(" ") & vbCrLf

        Next s

Help much appreciated

Mark
 
Ok I have made some headway but still not there yet .... I am now getting a clean split but I realize something that I am not sure what to do with
Obviously I am wanting to take the string as seen in this partial example of the string

Example string
Dim exampString as String

exampString = "Name: John Smith Race: White" ect ect ect ect

My code is now returning this

Name
John
Smith
Race
White ................. continues till it gets to TPD# then does this
TPD# summary text ......




and so on .... but the problem is not in the co as much as it is the strings it will be parsing
most ar as above but a few will have a middle name to like

Dim exampString As String
exampString = "Name: Mary Jane Smith Race: White Sex: Female"

and so on .......

If they didnt have the middle name my problem would be solved but the it is

I may be going about this still all wrong though as what I am wanting to do is put it back together in an order like this

Name: John Smith or John William Smith should a middle name exist
Race: White
Sex: Male
Age: 45 continuing this on down to
TPD# summary text ......

like that perhaps you guys could you point a better direction o what I might be overlooking

all help is much appreciated

vbMarkO
ooops forgot to ad the code here it is
Code: 
        Dim values As String

        values = "Name: Lanton Lamho Race: White Sex: Male Age: 18 DOB: 05-10-90 Height: 5’06 Weight: 152 Hair: Blk Eyes: Brown TPD#Lanton Lamho broke into the Quickie Mart located at 5310 S. Peoria Ave. The suspect used a manhole cover to throw..."

        Dim myString As String() = Nothing

        Dim sep(3) As Char

        sep(0) = ": "

        sep(1) = " Race:"

        sep(2) = " DOB:"

        myString = values.Split(sep, 29)

        Dim s As String
        Dim sArr As New ArrayList

        For Each s In myString
            sArr.Add(s).ToString.Replace(" ", ",")



        Next s
        For i = 0 To sArr.Count - 1
            If sArr(i) = "" Then

            Else
                rtb1.Text = rtb1.Text & sArr(i).ToString.Trim(" ") & vbCrLf
            End If
        Next
 
Last edited:
Here's something that works, assuming you take out all the parts after the "TPD#". This is not really the proper way to do this... you should be using regular expressions. I tried to do that, but I couldn't figure it out at the moment.

To solve your problem, you need to treat your string more generally; don't hard-code what each "label" is (name, DOB, etc.). Instead, just look for words that end in ":" and break lines up according to that.

Code: 
        Dim values As String
        values = "Name: Lanton Lamho Race: White Sex: Male Age: 18 DOB: 05-10-90 Height: 5’06 Weight: 152 Hair: Blk Eyes: Brown"

        Dim words As String() = values.Split(New Char() {" "c}) ' Split input string into words
        Dim lastLabel As Integer = -1 ' Keep track of the previous label's location in the array

        Dim output As String = ""

        For i As Integer = 0 To words.Length - 1
            Dim word As String = words(i)
            If word.EndsWith(":") Then ' If we have a label (ends with ":") ...
                If lastLabel <> -1 Then ' ... and we know where the last label was...
                    For j As Integer = lastLabel To i - 1 ' ... then concatenate all the words between the labels
                        output &= words(j) & " "
                    Next
                    output &= Environment.NewLine
                End If

                lastLabel = i ' Bump up the location of the label
            End If
        Next

        ' Your string will be in the variable output

Hope this helps.
 
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