Trim strings

[mateo107]

I need to read in a txt file into different combo boxes...

Depending on what the first words are will depend on which combo box it's placed into...

so, for example, my file (called settings.txt) will be:

site=USA
site=Canada
site=Mexico
phone=home
phone=cell
phone=office

so, I know I'll have to use a Streamreader and loop through the text, but how do I get it so that it trims off everything before the ='s sign?

so, my streamreader should read the following and add them to the

site combobox:
USA
CANADA
Mexico

phone combobox:
home
cell
office

Any ideas?
I know I'll need to loop through and use TRIM but I'm not sure ...

[bmahler]

you can use IO.File.ReadAllLines to read the lines in the file into a string array. You can then loop through the array and break down the lines using substring and place them in the appropriate combobox. Something like this...

        Dim Lines As String() = IO.File.ReadAllLines("PATH_TO_FILE")
        For Each line As String In Lines
            Select Case line.Substring(0, line.IndexOf("="))
                Case "site"
                    Me.SiteCombo.Items.Add(line.Substring(line.IndexOf("=") + 1))
                Case "phone"
                    Me.PhoneCombo.Items.Add(line.Substring(line.IndexOf("=") + 1))
            End Select
        Next

[mateo107]

your code works like a champ!

JUST what I needed!

I love being able to come here, learn something new and get helped by all the friendly other .NETTERs out there..

being a newbie, and not a terribly "logical" person, I have trouble using all of .NETs tricks unless I have examples!

Thanks a millioN!

[mateo107]

Actually,

if the line is blank (hard enter) it errors out because it encounters a "null" line essentially... and throws an error... how can i get it to ignore blanks?

[bmahler]

just add a check for an empty line

        Dim Lines As String() = IO.File.ReadAllLines("PATH_TO_FILE")
        For Each line As String In Lines
            If line.Trim <> String.Empty Then
                Select Case line.Substring(0, line.IndexOf("="))
                    Case "site"
                        Me.SiteCombo.Items.Add(line.Substring(line.IndexOf("=") + 1))
                    Case "phone"
                        Me.PhoneCombo.Items.Add(line.Substring(line.IndexOf("=") + 1))
                End Select
            End If
        Next