Question

I’ve got a string containing both ints and a string. How do I split it into two arrays, one for ints and one for the string? I also need to maintain the order because I’m writing a file parsing system that depends on reading in and correctly splitting these strings.

EDIT: Here’s a sample input, and what I would like as output:

~Wolf 100 45 4 5

Wolf as a string in an array
and the ints in their own separate array.

EDIT: A little more info:

I’m getting five variables from the user and writing them to a file. Then, I’m reading them back in again. I need to be able to identify the numbers by the name. Now that I think about it, actually, I’m not sure splitting the string is the best way to go. Is there a way to put both ints and strings in a single array? That way I can find the name, and know that the next four ints after it belong to it.

Answer 1

Use a Dictionary(Of TKey, TValue) with a String as the key, and an Integer() array as the value. This will give you the lookup functionality you are looking for…

Sub Main()
    Dim Input As String = "~Wolf 100 45 4 5" & Environment.NewLine & _
                          "~Racoon 500 41 9 7"

    Dim Dict As New Dictionary(Of String, Integer())

    For Each Line As String In Input.Split(Environment.NewLine)
        Dim Key As String
        Dim Values As Integer() = New Integer() {}

        For Each LineValue As String In Line.Split(" "c)
            Dim TryInt As Integer

            If Integer.TryParse(LineValue, TryInt) Then
                ReDim Preserve Values(Values.Length)
                Values(Values.Length - 1) = TryInt
            Else
                Key = LineValue.Trim("~")
            End If
        Next

        If Not String.IsNullOrEmpty(Key) Then
            Dict.Add(Key, Values)
        End If
    Next

    ' How to use                             \\'
    Dim WolfVals As Integer() = Dict.Item("Wolf")

    For Each Int as Integer in WolfVals
        Console.WriteLine(Int)
    Next

    Console.Read()
End Sub