[RESOLVED] printing values a tab delimited array

*EDIT*
This program has been changed so that it uses a 2 dimensional array instead of a 1 demensional array, so now instead of the data being stored as: ValueArray(0) = test 1, it will be saved as ValueArray(0, 0) = test 1
If you know how to write the contents of a text delimited file into a two dimensional array it would be appreciated

I'm writing an algorithm that reads the values in a tab delimited array and stores each value in an array, before writing the contents of each array index into a rich text box.

this is the file chr(9) is not written in the file but represents a tab spacing:
test1 chr(9) test2 chr(9) test3 chr(9) test(4) chr(9)

Declarations
Dim Importedfile As IO.StreamReader
Dim tempstring As String = My.Computer.FileSystem.ReadAllText(path + "Testfile.txt")
Dim Valuesarray(3) As String

Algorithm (on button click)
tempstring = Importedfile.ReadLine()
Valuesarray = tempstring.Split(New Char() {Chr(9)})
RichTextBox1.Text = Valuesarray(0) + Valuesarray(1) + Valuesarray(2) + Valuesarray(3)

Whenever i try to execute the code it says:
"An unhandled exception of type 'System.NullReferenceException' occurred in Tab delimited files.exe

Additional information: Object reference not set to an instance of an object."

and the line tempstring = Importedfile.Readline() is highlighted

thanks for helping

there are several things that i'd recommend you change. the error you get is because you declare Importedfile but you never instantiate it:

Code:

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Dim Importedfile As IO.StreamReader 'declaration

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Code:

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Importedfile = new IO.StreamReader 'instantiation

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some things on your code:
dont declare things like: "=My.Computer.FileSystem.ReadAllText(path + "Testfile.txt")" the readalltext call should not be part of the declaration but a call from a function (you seem to call them 'algorithms' ;))
you Dim Valuesarray(3) As String but why do you know it will have 4 fields? you get the actual fields with the split so could also be 2 or 7 which is no problem but the "(3)" is just zero added value (instead it may confuse someone reading your code)
why do you display your data in a richtextbox when it appears to be of tabular nature?

yeah I'm kinda new to this :blush:

this i just a module i'm using as a test run for a larger project, which is why i'm using the rich text box, to see if it works
I declared the array to hold 4 values because in the main program each array was going to hold 4 values to be used and no more
But I need to update this information because i've switched to using a 2 dimensional array instead of a single dimensional array, so i'll need to think of a different way of doing this.