[RESOLVED] String.Split with Enters and Tabs

[GrimmReaper]

Hello.

I'm getting information from the CLipboard that looks like the attached picture.

As you can see, there are 2 columns.

I'd like to be able to split each column into a separate array. This is what I have tried :

        Dim iData As IDataObject = New DataObject
        iData = Clipboard.GetDataObject()

        If iData.GetDataPresent(DataFormats.Text) Then

            strClipText = iData.GetData(DataFormats.Text, True).ToString().Split(Environment.NewLine.ToCharArray())


            For iCounter = 0 To strClipText.Length - 1
                strClipText(iCounter) = strLeft(strClipText(iCounter), 5)
                strClipText(iCounter) = Trim(strClipText(iCounter))

            Next
        End If

    Public Function strLeft(ByVal param As String, ByVal length As Integer) As String

        'we start at 0 since we want to get the characters starting from the
        'left and with the specified lenght and assign it to a variable
        Dim result As String
        If IsNumeric(param) Then result = Trim(param.Substring(0, length))

        'return the result of the operation
        Return result

    End Function

The problem with this is that I still get the entire row, instead of the first 5 characters of the row. I'd also like to know if it is possible to not include empty spaces - such as the first row??

Any help would be appreciated.

[cicatrix]

Try this:

strClipText = _
  iData.GetData(DataFormats.Text, True).ToString().Split(New String() _ 
  {Environment.NewLine, ControlChars.Tab}, _ 
  StringSplitOptions.None)

[GrimmReaper]

VB.NET 2003 doesn't seem to like StringSplitOptions.None

[cicatrix]

My fault, didn't look at the version.

The problem is that Environment.NewLine is actually a String having CR (0xD) and LF (0xA) characters.
You need a string as a separator, otherwise Split function will try to separate CRs and LFs.
Create a string array, not char.

Dim Separators(1) As String

Separators(0) = Environment.NewLine
Separators(1) = ControlChars.Tab

iData.GetData(DataFormats.Text, True).ToString().Split(Separators)

[GrimmReaper]

Cool. Thanks!

I've implemented it like this :

        If iData.GetDataPresent(DataFormats.Text) Then

            strClipText = iData.GetData(DataFormats.Text, True).ToString().Split(Separators(0))
            strClipText2 = iData.GetData(DataFormats.Text, True).ToString().Split(Separators(1))

        End If

Last question, hopefully.

Seeing the fact that I have only one array here containing everything. Is there a way to disregard the empty elements? Meaning that every second item now is empty, how can I determine that?

[cicatrix]

Well, in some later versions of the Framework there is StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries option, but here you should do it manually by checking each element of the resulting array and removing it.