Question

If you have the following example, how can you query out all the strings which start and end with a token using Linq?

Example:

"<file type="log4net.Util.PatternString" value="$SomeKey$" /> 
 <appendToFile value="true" />
 <datePattern value="$AnotherOne$" />
 <rollingStyle value="$YetAgain$" />
 <layout type="$SomeloggingType$">"

Where the result would come back with an enumberable like so:

$SomeKey$
$AnotherKey$
$YetAgain$
$SomeloggingType$

I have split out the string into an array, looped it, found all indexes of the token $, and got there that way, but how would we accomplish this in Linq?
Kinda stumped.

Answer 1

First split the text into segments, then select all the segments that start and end with $:

var text = @"<file type=""log4net.Util.PatternString"" value=""$SomeKey$"" /> 
<appendToFile value=""true"" />
<datePattern value=""$AnotherOne$"" />
<rollingStyle value=""$YetAgain$"" />
<layout type=""$SomeloggingType$"">";

var result = text.Split(new[] { '"' })
    .Where(item => item.StartsWith("$") && item.EndsWith("$"));

// Test the result
foreach (var item in result)
{
    Console.WriteLine(item);
}