Question

My request is one that can extract a number somewhat by a search.

Example:
animalsOwned|4 would return an containing “4”

animals|3|2|1|3 would return an array containing “3”, “2”, “1”, “3”

This would make it easier for me during a file stream reader.
Thank you

Answer 1

Try regular expression. It’s a powerful tool for simple text parsing.

Imports System.Text.RegularExpressions
Namespace Demo
    Class Program
        Shared Function Main(ByVal args As String()) As Integer
            Dim array As Integer() = ExtractIntegers("animals|3|2|1|3")
            For Each i In array
                Console.WriteLine(i)
            Next
            Return 0
        End Function
        Shared Function ExtractIntegers(ByVal input As String) As Integer()
            Dim pattern As String = "animals(\|(?<number>[0-9]+))*"
            Dim match As Match = Regex.Match(input, pattern)
            Dim list As New List(Of Integer)
            If match.Success Then
                For Each capture As Capture In match.Groups("number").Captures
                    list.Add(Integer.Parse(capture.Value))
                Next
            End If
            Return list.ToArray()
        End Function
    End Class
End Namespace