Extrapolating Multiple Data Fields from a String

[mpappert]

I'm just wondering if there is a .NET method for doing this tedious task ... I have data set (obtained from swiping a magnetic card) that is stored in a single string ...

 

The data is separated sometimes by actual field length, and in some instances by separators. I am using code like this to parse the data and was wondering if there was a better .NET method for handling strings in this manner ...

 

TIA!

M.

 

       ' Card Number
       m_strCardNumber = Mid$(strSwipeData, 9, 10)

       ' First, Middle, Last from "^Last/First Middle^"
       ' Last ends at a '/', First and Middle separated by Space
       ' enclosed in '^' (carots)
       For iLoop = 1 To Len(strSwipeData)
           Select Case Mid$(strSwipeData, iLoop, 1)
               Case "^"
                   If intNameLOC_Begin = 0 Then
                       intNameLOC_Begin = iLoop + 1
                   Else
                       intNameLOC_End = iLoop + 1
                       Exit For
                   End If
               Case "/"
                   intNameLOC_FirstName = iLoop + 1
               Case " "
                   intNameLOC_MiddleName = iLoop + 1
           End Select
       Next iLoop
       m_strName_Last = Mid$(strSwipeData, intNameLOC_Begin, intNameLOC_FirstName - intNameLOC_Begin - 1)
       m_strName_First = Mid$(strSwipeData, intNameLOC_FirstName, intNameLOC_MiddleName - intNameLOC_FirstName - 1)
       m_strName_Middle = Mid$(strSwipeData, intNameLOC_MiddleName, intNameLOC_End - intNameLOC_MiddleName - 1)

[Robby]

You can optimize this in VB6 as well as in VB.NET.

[Nerseus]

Check out the tutorial on regular expression matching. You can define a regular expression that matches your string and use the Matches object to get each piece handed to you (First, Middle and Last).

 

-Nerseus

[mpappert]

LOL ... How? :)

 

M.

[mpappert]

Ok .. I will look at regular expressions! Thanks!!

 

M.

[Nerseus]

Take a look at this thread

 

-nerseus

 

PS Don't forget to use the help files that ship with Visual Studio - they have a ton of help and samples and give you the specifics of each object.

[mpappert]

Thanks Nerseus!!!

 

M.

[Robby]

The first thing I thought of using was regular expressions, but a real simple a fast approach would be to use the Split function...

       strSwipeData = "^Smith/John myMid^"

       strSwipeData = strSwipeData.Replace("^", "")

       Dim temp() As String
       Dim temp2() As String

       temp = strSwipeData.Split("/"c)
       temp2 = temp(1).Split(" "c)

       m_strName_Last = temp(0)
       m_strName_First = temp2(0)
       m_strName_Middle = temp2(1)

[mpappert]

I like the regular expression approach .. there are a total of 17 fields that are stored in this magnet swipe string ... I'm guessing I have to write one regular expression that matches the format of the string, but then how do I use the match function to seek the data in the string? The match function searches for data matches (if I use that example Nerseus posted earlier) it looks for "S" ... not everything has a separator .. some information (at the beginning and end) is size delimited (ie. fixed length fields) ... Can this be parsed using RegEx?

 

M.