Merging .TXT files

Hey Guys,

I have been racking the brains trying to think of the best way to programmatically do this, i'm trying to merge 2 .txt files into 1, but the problem is the way i do it a typical file looks like:

#furniture_field|furniture|etc|etc
FURNITURE
#!chairs|chairs[]|etc|etc
CHAIRS
#doors_fields|door|etc|etc
DOORS
#price|price_tag|new_prices
PRICE
etc
etc

The macros i.e. (the capitalised fields are pretty much all the same) only the fields above change like:

#prices|prices_tag|new_price
PRICE
#furniture_field|furniture|etc|etc
FURNITURE
#doors_field|doors|etc|etc
DOORS
#!chair|chair[]|etc|etc
CHAIRS
etc
etc

The macros aren't always in the same order so i can't even go line by line, ultimately i'm trying to merge them into one file like:

#prices|prices_tag|new_price|price|prices_tag
PRICE
#furniture_field|furniture|etc|etc
FURNITURE
#doors_field|doors|etc|etc
DOORS
#!chair|chair[]|door|etc|etc
CHAIRS
etc
etc

The fields are seperated with a "|" so i could split them up and check for duplicates before adding to the master.txt file, so far i have:

Code:

---

        Try

            '// READ FILE #1
            Dim File1 As New IO.StreamReader(txtBoxXas1.Text)
            Dim FileData1 As String = File1.ReadToEnd()
            File1.Close()

            '// READ FILE #2
            Dim File2 As New IO.StreamReader(txtBoxXas2.Text)
            Dim FileData2 As String = File2.ReadToEnd()
            File2.Close()

            '// DECLARE VARIABLES
            Dim File1Data As String() = FileData1.Split()
            Dim File2Data As String() = FileData2.Split()

            For x = 0 To UBound(File1Data)

                If File1Data(x) <> File2Data(x) Then


                Else

                End If

            Next

        Catch ex As Exception

            MessageBox.Show(ex.ToString)

        End Try

---

This just read one line at a time, i can't think of the best way to do this lol

any tips or help would be appreciated :)

cheers guys

Graham

You code for reading files is buggy, because FileData1.Split() is split by space while you must split by vbNewLine

try this one

Code:

---

        Try

            Dim File1Data As String() = IO.File.ReadAllLines(txtBoxXas1.Text) ' READ FILE #1
            Dim File2Data As String() = IO.File.ReadAllLines(txtBoxXas2.Text) ' READ FILE #2

            ' get the smallest upper bound to prevent 'out of range' exception inside the for...next
            Dim intUpperBound As Integer
            If File1Data.Length < File2Data.Length Then
                intUpperBound = File1Data.Length
            Else
                intUpperBound = File2Data.Length
            End If

            For x = 0 To intUpperBound - 1
                If File1Data(x) <> File2Data(x) Then

                Else

                End If

            Next

        Catch ex As Exception

            MessageBox.Show(ex.ToString)

        End Try

---