Seperating Strings

[Lalaluye]

I have a string like this:
"Temp state: NormalTemperature: 22.00 CBOARD: 22.00 C (1159 mV ADC: 36409)PA_THERM1: 21.00 C (1169 mV ADC: 36510)PA_THERM2: 21.00 C (1171 mV ADC: 36529)PMIC DIE: 28.14 C (603 mV ADC: 30867)XO: 28.03 C (836 mV ADC: 33142)XO_GPS: 28.03 C (836 mV ADC: 33142)"

I want to print it into something like this:
"Temp state: Normal"
"Temperature: 22.00"
"CBOARD: 22.00 C (1159 mV ADC: 36409)"
"PA_THERM1: 21.00 C (1169 mV ADC 36510)"
"PA_THERM2:21.00 C (1171 mV ADC: 36529)"
"PMIC DIE: 28.14 C (603 mV ADC: 30867)"
"XO: 28.03 C (836 mV ADC: 33142)"
"XO_GPS: 28.03 C (836 mV ADC: 33142)"

The thing is, the code needs to be flexible and universal to any types of string. For example if I also have a string like this:

"Manufacturer: Sierra Wireless, IncorporatedModel: EM7455Revision: SWI9X30C_01.02.02.00 r3131 CARMD-EV-FRMWR2 2015/06/28 22:12:19IMEI: 001027009999999IMEI SV: 0FSN: LF524501170105+GCAP: +CGSM"

I want to print it like this:
"Manufacturer: Sierra Wireless, Incorporated"
"Model: EM7455"
"Revision: SWI9X30C_01.02.02.00 r3131 CARMD-EV-FRMWR2 2015/06/28 22:12:19"
"IMEI: 001027009999999"
"IMEI SV: 0"
"FSN: LF524501170105"
"+GCAP: +CGSM"

Is there a possible way to approach writing this code? Any help is much appreciated. Thanks!

[dday9]

The best way to handle this data would be to know the "categories" up-front, are you able to do this? If so take a look at the following code:

Imports System
Imports System.Text.RegularExpressions

Public Module Module1

    Public Sub Main()
        Dim format1 As String = "Temp state: NormalTemperature: 22.00 CBOARD: 22.00 C (1159 mV ADC: 36409)PA_THERM1: 21.00 C (1169 mV ADC: 36510)PA_THERM2: 21.00 C (1171 mV ADC: 36529)PMIC DIE: 28.14 C (603 mV ADC: 30867)XO: 28.03 C (836 mV ADC: 33142)XO_GPS: 28.03 C (836 mV ADC: 33142)"
        Dim format2 As String = "Manufacturer: Sierra Wireless, IncorporatedModel: EM7455Revision: SWI9X30C_01.02.02.00 r3131 CARMD-EV-FRMWR2 2015/06/28 22:12:19IMEI: 001027009999999IMEI SV: 0FSN: LF524501170105+GCAP: +CGSM"
        Console.WriteLine(FormatData(format1, {"Temp state", "Temperature", "CBOARD", "PA_THERM1", "PA_THERM2", "PMIC DIE", "XO", "XO_GPS"}))
        Console.WriteLine()
        Console.WriteLine(FormatData(format2, {"Manufacturer", "Model", "Revision", "IMEI", "IMEI SV", "FSN", "GCAP"}))
    End Sub

    Private Function FormatData(ByVal input As String, ByVal categories() As String) As String
        Dim categoryEvaluator As MatchEvaluator = New MatchEvaluator(AddressOf ReplaceCategory)
        Return Regex.Replace(input, String.Join("|", categories), categoryEvaluator)
    End Function

    Private Function ReplaceCategory(ByVal m As Match) As String
        Return Environment.NewLine & m.Value
    End Function
End Module

Obviously you'll need to escape special characters like the plus sign in +GCAP, but again this is only if you know the categories up-front.

[kaliman79912]

The main problem I see there is that the last value and the next field or category are joined together. Unless you have a fixed table of fields, well defined, it would be very difficult to separate "NormalTemperature" into "Normal" and "Temperature" because according to your example, the Caps style is not consistent. One possibility is that there is a special character there that we are not able to see. Can you check it?

[Lalaluye]

At debug print, I get "Temp state: Normal Temperature: 22.00" I know that the space between Normal and Temperature isn't actually a space. How can I code it in such a way that it detects that it isn't actually a space and return the index between Normal and Temperature ?

[kaliman79912]

It must be a special character, if that is the case the solution would be simple. Try obtaining the character code for that specific character. Show us the code where you have these strings.

[Lalaluye]

How do I do that? I am not quite sure what the character is. I only know that it looks like a space.

[dday9]

At debug print, I get "Temp state: Normal Temperature: 22.00"

That's debugging my code that I provided and it's not a NewLine?

[Lalaluye]

That's debugging my code that I provided and it's not a NewLine?

Oh no, not for the code you wrote. I actually will not know the categories up front. I have several AT commands that I send to the USB to get a response, so I'm not sure how that code would work for me. Thanks a lot though

[kaliman79912]

not the most elegant, but if you have that string in a variable, and it has exactly what you are posting. Put a line with:

MsgBox(Microsoft.VisualBasic.Asc(yourStringHere.Substring(18)))

Note, is character 18, I had it wrong

[Lalaluye]

Solved! Thanks!

[dday9]

The issue that you have is that there are no consistencies:

• There is a separator between categories and values, but none between the prior value and the next category.
• The capital letters are not consistent, you could separate the prior value from the next category in cases such as NormalTemperature but not (1159 mV ADC: 36409)PA_THERM1
• The values are not consistent in that one may be a digit and the next may be wrapped in parenthesis

As far as I can tell, you simply cannot parse the text without hand-coding all of it for the specific format that's being parsed.

[kaliman79912]

Could you post your solution? to help others with similar issues.