Question

I’m trying to write a simple program that will compare the files in separate folders. I’m currently using LINQ to Objects to parse the folder and would like to included information extracted from the string in my result set as well.

Here’s what I have so far:

FileInfo[] fileList = new DirectoryInfo(@"G:\Norton Backups").GetFiles();

var results = from file in fileList
              orderby file.CreationTime
              select new { file.Name, file.CreationTime, file.Length };

foreach (var x in results)
    Console.WriteLine(x.Name);

This produces:

AWS025.sv2i
AWS025_C_Drive038.v2i
AWS025_C_Drive038_i001.iv2i
AWS025_C_Drive038_i002.iv2i
AWS025_C_Drive038_i003.iv2i
AWS025_C_Drive038_i004.iv2i
AWS025_C_Drive038_i005.iv2i    
...

I would like to modify the LINQ query so that:

• It only includes actual “backup” files (you can tell the backup files because of the _C_Drive038 in the examples above, though 038 and possibly the drive letter could change).
• I want to include a field if the file is the “main” backup file (i.e., it doesn’t have _i0XX at the end of the file name).
• I want to include the “image number” of the file (e.g. in this case it’s 038).
• I want to include the increment number if it’s an incrememnt of a base file (e.g. 001 would be an increment number)

I believe the basic layout of the query would look like the following, but I’m not sure how best to complete it (I’ve got some ideas for how some of this might be done, but I’m interested to heard how others might do it):

var results = from file in fileList
              let IsMainBackup = \\ ??
              let ImageNumber = \\ ??
              let IncrementNumber = \\ ??
              where \\ it is a backup file.
              orderby file.CreationTime
              select new { file.Name, file.CreationTime, file.Length, 
                           IsMainBackup, ImageNumber, IncrementNumber };

When looking for the ImageNumber and IncrementNumber, I would like to assume that the location of this data is not always fixed, meaning, I’d like to know of a good way to parse this (If this requires RegEx, please explain how I might use it).

NOTE: Most of my past experience in parsing text involved using location-based string functions, such as LEFT, RIGHT, or MID. I’d rather not fall back on those if there is a better way.

Answer 1

Using regular expressions:

    Regex regex = new Regex(@"^.*(?<Backup>_\w_Drive(?<ImageNumber>\d+)(?<Increment>_i(?<IncrementNumber>\d+))?)\.[^.]+$");
    var results = from file in fileList
                  let match = regex.Match(file.Name)
                  let IsMainBackup = !match.Groups["Increment"].Success
                  let ImageNumber = match.Groups["ImageNumber"].Value
                  let IncrementNumber = match.Groups["IncrementNumber"].Value
                  where match.Groups["Backup"].Success
                  orderby file.CreationTime
                  select new { file.Name, file.CreationTime, file.Length,
                               IsMainBackup, ImageNumber, IncrementNumber };

Here is a description of the regular expression:

^                   Start of string.
.*                  Allow anything at the start.
(?<Backup>...)      Match a backup description (explained below).
\.                  Match a literal period.
[^.]+$              Match the extension (anything except periods).
$                   End of string.

Backup is:

_\w_Drive           A literal underscore, any letter, another underscore, then the string "Drive".
(?<ImageNumber>\d+) At least one digit, saved as ImageNumber.
(?<Increment>...)?  An optional increment description.

Increment is:

_i                      A literal underscore, then the letter i.
(?<IncrementNumber>\d+) At least one digit, saved as IncrementNumber.

---

Here is the test code I used:

using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Text.RegularExpressions;
using System.Linq;

class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        FileInfo[] fileList = new FileInfo[] {
            new FileInfo("AWS025.sv2i"),
            new FileInfo("AWS025_C_Drive038.v2i"),
            new FileInfo("AWS025_C_Drive038_i001.iv2i"),
            new FileInfo("AWS025_C_Drive038_i002.iv2i"),
            new FileInfo("AWS025_C_Drive038_i003.iv2i"),
            new FileInfo("AWS025_C_Drive038_i004.iv2i"),
            new FileInfo("AWS025_C_Drive038_i005.iv2i")
        };

        Regex regex = new Regex(@"^.*(?<Backup>_\w_Drive(?<ImageNumber>\d+)(?<Increment>_i(?<IncrementNumber>\d+))?)\.[^.]+$");
        var results = from file in fileList
                      let match = regex.Match(file.Name)
                      let IsMainBackup = !match.Groups["Increment"].Success
                      let ImageNumber = match.Groups["ImageNumber"].Value
                      let IncrementNumber = match.Groups["IncrementNumber"].Value
                      where match.Groups["Backup"].Success
                      orderby file.CreationTime
                      select new { file.Name, file.CreationTime,
                                   IsMainBackup, ImageNumber, IncrementNumber };

        foreach (var x in results)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Name: {0}, Main: {1}, Image: {2}, Increment: {3}",
                x.Name, x.IsMainBackup, x.ImageNumber, x.IncrementNumber);
        }
    }
}

And here is the output I get:

Name: AWS025_C_Drive038.v2i, Main: True, Image: 038, Increment:
Name: AWS025_C_Drive038_i001.iv2i, Main: False, Image: 038, Increment: 001
Name: AWS025_C_Drive038_i002.iv2i, Main: False, Image: 038, Increment: 002
Name: AWS025_C_Drive038_i003.iv2i, Main: False, Image: 038, Increment: 003
Name: AWS025_C_Drive038_i004.iv2i, Main: False, Image: 038, Increment: 004
Name: AWS025_C_Drive038_i005.iv2i, Main: False, Image: 038, Increment: 005