split strings into integers

[crabramson]

I'm trying to split an inputted string (txtStart.text) into separate integers. The split function works fine for me, but I can't figure out how to store the each part of the array... any ideas? Thanks

This is my current code that I based on an example from MSDN library:

    Private Sub btnGo_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles btnGo.Click
        SplitStringIntoWords()
    End Sub

    Private Function SplitStringIntoWords() As Integer
        Dim strComplete As String = txtStart.Text

        Dim strWords() As String
        Dim strSeparators() As Char = {"/"c, "-"c}


        strWords = strComplete.Split(strSeparators)
        Dim i As Integer
        For i = 0 To UBound(strWords)
            MessageBox.Show(strWords(i))
        Next


    End Function

[sharik]

instead of ubound u can use Len(string) but besides that,

im not sure exactly what you did there... but what u need to do is very simple string "manipulation"
use the function InStr() to locate where is the seperation then use the function Mid twice, once for the first part (before the seperator) and second for the second part (after the seperator....
then u will have two strings , first part and second part
then, the last step should be converting to Integer with the function Val () (i think)

[Pradeep1210]

strWords is already an array. What else are you looking for?

[minitech]

Try to replace the For loop?

Dim i As Integer = 0
Dim l As New List(Of String)
While i < strWords.Length
        Dim ans As Integer = CInt(Val(strWords(i)))
        'Do whatever you want with ans. Here, I put it into a list.
        l.Add(ans)
        i += 1
End While

By the way, this won't work unless you use VS 2005 or higher (the others don't have List). If you aren't using one of these, use this:

Dim l As Integer(strWords.Length - 1)

and replace l.Add(ans) with l(i) = ans.

[dbasnett]

    Private Function SplitStringIntoWords() As List(Of Integer)
        'If this is to manipulate dates there are other ways
        Dim strWords() As String
        Dim asIntegers As New List(Of Integer)
        Dim strSeparators() As Char = {"/"c, "-"c, " "c} '/-space

        strWords = txtStart.Text.Split(strSeparators, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries)
        Dim i As Integer
        For x = 0 To strWords.Length - 1
            If Integer.TryParse(strWords(x), i) Then
                asIntegers.Add(i)
            End If
        Next
        Return asIntegers
    End Function

    'Test
    Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
        Dim retval As New List(Of Integer)
        retval = SplitStringIntoWords()
        For x As Integer = 0 To retval.Count - 1
            Debug.WriteLine(retval(x).ToString)
        Next
    End Sub

[crabramson]

Thank you very much. I'm quite sure I understand everything now.

One more question...If I inputted a date MMDDYYYY in txtStart.text, how would I store each MM, DD, and YYYY into separate integers. For example,

input: 04072009
and I want it to store:
startMonth = 04
startDay = 07
startYear = 2009

Sorry if this is so basic... I'm in an intro course. Thanks again

[Campion]

The best way, is to turn the string into a date, and then use DATE.getDate, getMonth, and getYear to parse out what you need.

[crabramson]

Ok... thanks. Can you give me an example of what this means / how to do it?

[dbasnett]

        Dim d As Date
        txtStart.Text = "04072009" 'test
        If Date.TryParseExact(txtStart.Text, _
                              "MMddyyyy", _
                              Nothing, _
                              Globalization.DateTimeStyles.None, d) Then
            'date is good format
            Dim startMonth As Integer = d.Month
            Dim startDay As Integer = d.Day
            Dim startYear As Integer = d.Year
        Else
            'date is bad
        End If

[arsmakman]

Whoa, whoa... There is a much easier for going through an array this way!

Use: For Each

Dim splitChars() As Char = {"/"c, "-"c}
Dim allTheNumbers() As String = txtStart.Text.Split(splitChars)
For Each iNumber As String In allTheNumbers
    MessageBox.Show(iNumber)
Next

It will loop the code for every number in "allTheNumbers" and "iNumber" will be that number.

[Campion]

Not to say that you using a textbox is a bad method, but wouldn't it make more sense to use either a date/time picker control or calendar control?

[dbasnett]

Whoa, whoa... There is a much easier for going through an array this way!

Use: For Each

Dim splitChars() As Char = {"/"c, "-"c}
Dim allTheNumbers() As String = txtStart.Text.Split(splitChars)
For Each iNumber As String In allTheNumbers
    MessageBox.Show(iNumber)
Next

It will loop the code for every number in "allTheNumbers" and "iNumber" will be that number.

This would also work if the input was
aa-bb-zzzz
which, last I knew, weren't numbers, except maybe in base 26.

@crab - When asking a question be specific. You were asking about manipulating dates, yet in your original post you didn't mention the word date.

I would agree that using a DTP would be my first choice, less chance for the user to make a mistake.

[crabramson]

Maybe...my assignment is to input two dates in a textbox and output all the dates in between the two dates.

Our plan is to convert the date string into separate integers (MM , DD, and YYYY as stated) and use several counters and loops to add/output one day at a time until the last day.

Is there clearly a better a way of doing this?

Heres the flowchart

[crabramson]

@dbasnett

i'll try to be more specific in the future... thanks

[kleinma]

honestly, if you wanted to take 2 dates, and get all date values in between those 2 dates, it is as simple as this:

        Dim StartDate As Date = #1/1/2009#
        Dim EndDate As Date = #4/7/2009#

        Do Until StartDate = EndDate.AddDays(-1)
            StartDate = StartDate.AddDays(1)
            Debug.WriteLine(StartDate)
        Loop

however if your teacher gave you that flowchart to use to map out your code logic, then obviously they want you to just to do this as a learning exercise in logic, and you will probably have to do it the ridiculously non real world hard way

[dbasnett]

using post #9 to validate both start and end dates

        Dim stDt As DateTime
        Dim endDt As DateTime
        Dim dtDiff As TimeSpan
        'sample data
        stDt = DateTime.Now
        endDt = stDt.AddDays(100)
        endDt = endDt.AddHours(13)

        dtDiff = endDt.Subtract(stDt)

I agree with Matt, about un-real.

[sharik]

guys,
he is new at programing and your "throwing" all this code.... im sure he wants it simple
ofcourse that "simple" depends on preseption
in any case, here is simple (yet primitive) way for you...

mainstring :04072009

the input is a string , which means you can access each char (cell) individually
so...if you want to get the "4" then you can write mainstring(2) , cell number 2.

as for your example :
startMonth = mainstring(1) & mainstring(2)
startDay = mainstring(3) & mainstring(4)
startYear = mainstring(5) & mainstring(6) & mainstring(7) & mainstring(8)

by the way, & is appending (adding) to the end of the string

[minitech]

And the dashes? Just thought I'd point that out, so that code exactly is not used. But anyways, that is not a good way. What if you have 30 dates in the textbox or something? And if they're in a different format? Any change would require completely new (and long) code.

[kleinma]

guys,
he is new at programing and your "throwing" all this code.... im sure he wants it simple
ofcourse that "simple" depends on preseption
in any case, here is simple (yet primitive) way for you...

mainstring :04072009

the input is a string , which means you can access each char (cell) individually
so...if you want to get the "4" then you can write mainstring(2) , cell number 2.

as for your example :
startMonth = mainstring(1) & mainstring(2)
startDay = mainstring(3) & mainstring(4)
startYear = mainstring(5) & mainstring(6) & mainstring(7) & mainstring(8)

by the way, & is appending (adding) to the end of the string

for someone criticizing what other people are posting, did you even try this code you are tying here? I can only imagine that you did not, since arrays start at index 0, meaning your startMonth variable will have a value of "40" not "04" based on the code you are showing there. There is no char at index 8 in a 8 character string, its 0-7, so the code would crash on the startYear assignment line.

[stanav]

Thank you very much. I'm quite sure I understand everything now.

One more question...If I inputted a date MMDDYYYY in txtStart.text, how would I store each MM, DD, and YYYY into separate integers. For example,

input: 04072009
and I want it to store:
startMonth = 04
startDay = 07
startYear = 2009

Sorry if this is so basic... I'm in an intro course. Thanks again

You have to convert the input into a String object (if it's not already a string), and then use Date.TryParseExact or Date.ParseExact to parse that string into a Date object. Once you have the Date object, you can access its Year, Month and Day properties to get what you need.

[crabramson]

@kleinma

about the line: Debug.WriteLine(StartDate)
if I'm outputting to a text file then would it work if debug is the name of my streamwriter?

[kleinma]

If you are asking, can you replace the word "debug" with the name of your streamwriter variable, then yes you can, since streamwriter also has a WriteLine() method.

[arsmakman]

Debug.Print, writes to the debug window.
You could copy-paste the text from there into a file or you could do this, to save directly to a file:

        Dim StartDate As Date = #1/1/2009#
        Dim EndDate As Date = #4/7/2009#
        Dim ListOfDates As String = ""

        Do Until StartDate = EndDate.AddDays(-1)
            StartDate = StartDate.AddDays(1)
             ListOfDates &= StartDate & vbNewLine
        Loop

        IO.File.WriteAllText ("C:\Output.txt", ListOfDates)

This will save the dates as a list to the file C:\output.txt

[ForumAccount]

Just to add for crabramson, I'm not sure if you'll want the actual time part of the Date returned by:

Debug.WriteLine(StartDate)

So you can do:

Debug.WriteLine(StartDate.ToString("MM-dd-yyyy"))

[sharik]

Originally Posted by sharik View Post
guys,
he is new at programing and your "throwing" all this code.... im sure he wants it simple
ofcourse that "simple" depends on preseption
in any case, here is simple (yet primitive) way for you...

mainstring :04072009

the input is a string , which means you can access each char (cell) individually
so...if you want to get the "4" then you can write mainstring(2) , cell number 2.

as for your example :
startMonth = mainstring(1) & mainstring(2)
startDay = mainstring(3) & mainstring(4)
startYear = mainstring(5) & mainstring(6) & mainstring(7) & mainstring(8)

by the way, & is appending (adding) to the end of the string

for someone criticizing what other people are posting, did you even try this code you are tying here? I can only imagine that you did not, since arrays start at index 0, meaning your startMonth variable will have a value of "40" not "04" based on the code you are showing there. There is no char at index 8 in a 8 character string, its 0-7, so the code would crash on the startYear assignment line.

i wasn't criticizing , although i understand why it might be read like that,

i'm a beginner (obviously) and i will not allow my self to criticize , and besides even if i wasn't beginner , i wouldn't do that...

i always appreciated anything i could find here, and respect all the people here, using their time to help and post answers and codes and tips, thats alot of devotion right there...
so i definitely have high respect for this form and people in it....

apologies to everyone, your the greatest

as for the code,
no i didn't try the code, i dont have VS install on this machine, it was just the idea, he would be able to make the correct changes.don't get me wrong, you are very correct that i made the mistake, no doubt in that.

[crabramson]

Just to add for crabramson, I'm not sure if you'll want the actual time part of the Date returned by:

Debug.WriteLine(StartDate)

So you can do:

Debug.WriteLine(StartDate.ToString("MM-dd-yyyy"))

That causes ArgumentOutOfRangeException: The added or subtracted value results in an un-representable DateTime. Parameter name: value

[crabramson]

works perfectly, thanks

[ForumAccount]

That causes ArgumentOutOfRangeException: The added or subtracted value results in an un-representable DateTime. Parameter name: value

Errr... if StartDate is valid then no it doesn't.

Dim StartDate As Date = #4/7/2009 12:00:00 PM# 
Debug.WriteLine(StartDate.ToString("MM-dd-yyyy"))