Question

I have a function in a class called Function, like below:

public int SearchedRecords(String [] recs)
{
    int counter = 0;
    String pat = "-----";
    String[] records = recs;

    foreach (String line in records)
    {
        if (line.Contains(pat) == true)
        {
            counter++;
        }
    }

    return counter;
}

And I am calling this method from my main class this way:

        String [] file = File.ReadAllLines("C:/Users.../results.txt");
        int counter = Function.SearchedRecords( []file);

But I get an error saying:

;expected

What is wrong?

---

Another question: The function above is counting from a file all the lines with the pattern ----- in them (even if with more dashes, or if the line has some chars before or after the dashes). Am I right?

It’s something like the patterns in Java so maybe there is an other way.
Can you enlighten me?

Answer 1

Remove the [] from your parameter.

e.g.

int counter = Function.SearchedRecords(file);

And yes, your assumption about the behavior of the Contains method is correct – you’ll match any line containing five consecutive dashes, regardless of what characters are before or after them.

If you want to parse for exactly five dashes, with nothing before or after them I suggest looking into the RegEx class (regular expressions).