assign a string to an array

[gollnick]

I am looking for a fast and effeciant way of assignning a string of characters to an array.

I have tried this and it works ..
Alpha = System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.Split( "a,b,c,d,e,f,g,h,i,j,k,l,m,n,o,p,q,r,s,t,u,v,w,x,y,z", "," )

but there must be a better way. This seems very clunky.

gollnick

[Edneeis]

I'm not sure what you mean by clunky but the same function is available in the String object (but its not shared so you'll need an instance of a string)

Dim alpha() As String
        Dim list As String = "a,b,c,d,e,f,g,h,i,j,k,l,m,n,o,p,q,r,s,t,u,v,w,x,y,z"
        alpha = list.Split(",")

Or you can assign them to the array when you declare it

Dim alpha() As String = {"a", "b", "c", "d", "e", "f", "g", "h", "i", "j", "k", "l", "m", "n", "o", "p", "q", "r", "s", "t", "u", "v", "w", "x", "y", "z"}

[gollnick]

Ok .. but lets say the character string I get in is not comma seperated .... Just a straight datastream like...

"abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ"

and I want this in an array where I can navigate to any single character in this string.... I cant to know that element 12 of this array is the letter "m"

gollnick

[Edneeis]

If there is no seperator then things may get more complicated. Although if you are strictly talking about chars then its even simplier than an array. A string is really just an array of chars so if the datastream is made of chars then you can assign it to a string and retrieve info vis the indexOf or SubString methods.

Dim datastream As String = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ"
        'get char at location 12
        MsgBox(datastream.Substring(12,1))
        'what index is 'm' returns -1 if not found
        MsgBox(datastream.IndexOf("m"))