Question

I have an array which contains following values:

str[0]= "MeterNr 29202"
str[1]="- 20111101: position 61699 (Previous calculation) "
str[2]="- 20111201: position 68590 (Calculation) consumption 6891 kWh"
str[3]="- 20111101: position 75019 (Previous calculation) "
str[4]="MeterNr 50273"
str[5]="- 20111101: position 18103 (Previous reading) "
str[6]="- 20111201: position 19072 (Calculation) consumption 969 kWh "

I want to split the rows in logical order so that I can store them in following Reading class. I have problems with spliting the values. Everything in brackets () is ItemDescription.

I will be thankful for the quick answer.

public class Reading
{
    public string MeterNr { get; set; }

    public string ItemDescription { get; set; }

    public string Date { get; set; }

    public string Position { get; set; }

    public string Consumption { get; set; }
}

Answer 1

I would just use a for loop and string indexes etc, but then I am a bit simple like that! Not sure of your data (i.e. if things might be missing) but this would work on the data you have posted…

var readings = new List<Reading>();
int meterNrLength = "MeterNr".Length;
int positionLength = "position".Length;
int consumptionLength = "consumption".Length;
string meterNr = null;

foreach(var s in str)
{
    int meterNrIndex = s.IndexOf("MeterNr",
                                 StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase);

    if (meterNrIndex != -1)
    {
        meterNr = s.Substring(meterNrIndex + meterNrLength).Trim();
        continue;
    }

    var reading = new Reading {MeterNr = meterNr};

    string rest = s.Substring(0, s.IndexOf(':'));
    reading.Date = rest.Substring(1).Trim();

    rest = s.Substring(s.IndexOf("position") + positionLength);

    int bracketIndex = rest.IndexOf('(');

    reading.Position = rest.Substring(0, bracketIndex).Trim();

    rest = rest.Substring(bracketIndex + 1);

    reading.ItemDescription = rest.Substring(0, rest.IndexOf(")"));

    int consumptionIndex = rest.IndexOf("consumption",
                                        StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase);

    if (consumptionIndex != -1)
    {
        reading.Consumption = rest.Substring(consumptionIndex + consumptionLength).Trim();
    }

    readings.Add(reading);
}