Question

I cannot believe I am having trouble with this following string

String filter = "name=Default;pattern=%%;start=Last;end=Now";

This is a short and possibly duplicate question, but how would I split this string to get:

string Name = "Default";
string Pattern = "%%" ;
string start = "Last" ;
string end = "Now" ;

Reason why I ask is my deadline is very soon, and this is literally the last thing I must do. I’m Panicking, and I’m stuck on this basic command. I tried:

pattern = filter.Split(new string[] { "pattern=", ";" },
                       StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries)[1]; //Gets the pattern
startDate = filter.Split(new string[] { "start=", ";" },
                         StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries)[1]; //Gets the start date

I happen to get the pattern which I needed, but as soon as I try to split start, I get the value as “Pattern=%%”

What can I do?

Forgot to mention
The list in this string which needs splitting may not be in any particular order . this is a single sample of a string which will be read out of a stringCollection (reading these filters from Properties.Settings.Filters

Answer 1

The start date ends up at the thrird position in the array:

startDate = filter.Split(new string[] { "start=", ";" }, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries)[2];

Instead of splitting the string once for each value, you might want to split it into the separate key-value pairs, then split each pair:

string[] pairs = filter.Split(';');
string[] values = pairs.Select(pair => pair.Split('=')[1]).ToArray();

string name = values[0];
string pattern = values[1];
string start = values[2];
string end = values[3];

(This code of course assumes that the key-value pairs always come in the same order.)

You could also split the string into intersperced array, so that every other item is a key or a value:

string[] values = filter.Split(new string[] { "=", ";" }, StringSplitOptions.None);

string name = values[1];
string pattern = values[3];
string start = values[5];
string end = values[7];

Edit:

To handle key-values in any order, make a lookup from the string, and pick values from it:

ILookup<string, string> values =
  filter.Split(';')
  .Select(s => s.Split('='))
  .ToLookup(p => p[0], p => p[1]);

string name = values["name"].Single();
string pattern = values["pattern"].Single();
string start = values["start"].Single();
string end = values["end"].Single();

You can use SingleOrDefault if you want to support values being missing from the string:

string name = values["name"].SingleOrDefault() ?? "DefaultName";

The lookup also supports duplicate key-value pairs. If there might be duplicates, just loop through the values:

foreach (var string name in values["name"]) {
  // do something with the name
}