[RESOLVED] How to split a multiline textbox into individual lines

[mstevens33]

I am working on an assignment where I have to enter data as such:

First Name Last Name
Street Address
City, State Zip
Home Phone
Work Phone

...In a single text box, so I switched to a multiline text box.
I want to break the string into lines, error check the lines, and then cast each individual item into a field variable.

Here is my current code: (with lots of errors)

Option Explicit On
Option Strict On
'Acme Info
Public Class Form1

    Private Sub btnConc_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles btnConc.Click
        Dim strInfo As String = txtInfo.Text
        Dim strLine1 As String
        Dim strLine2 As String
        Dim strLine3 As String
        Dim strLine4 As String
        Dim strLine5 As String
        Dim strFName As String
        Dim strLName As String
        Dim strAddress As String
        Dim strCity As String
        Dim strState As String
        Dim strZip As String
        Dim strHPhone As String
        Dim strWPhone As String

        strLine1 = strInfo.Substring(0, vbNewLine)
        strInfo = strInfo.Remove(0, vbNewLine)
        strLine2 = strInfo.Substring(0, vbNewLine)
        strInfo = strInfo.Remove(0, vbNewLine)
        strLine3 = strInfo.Substring(0, vbNewLine)
        strInfo = strInfo.Remove(0, vbNewLine)
        strLine4 = strInfo.Substring(0, vbNewLine)
        strInfo = strInfo.Remove(0, vbNewLine)
        strLine5 = strInfo.Substring(0, vbNewLine)
        strInfo = strInfo.Remove(0, vbNewLine)


    End Sub
End Class

Any suggestions?

[Shaggy Hiker]

The multiline textbox has a problem in this case: It doesn't really have multiple lines.

If the user enters their data in such a way that they get carriage returns, then all is well. You could actually Split on the newline and do all that separation in a single step, but it will work either way (oddly enough, dday just started a thread that has code that does exactly that, so you could look at it if you wanted). However, if the textbox isn't wide enough for any particular line, then the text is going to wordwrap. That's still ok with your code, unless the user sees it wrap and doesn't add in the carriage return. When it wraps in that fashion, it will have multiple lines, but you can't determine where one ends and the next begins. You really HAVE to ensure that the user always ends a line with a carriage return, which is hard to do (cause the users are difficult). As long as the textbox is quite wide, such that nobody will enter anything that will wrap under normal circumstances, then all should be well.

[stanav]

The textbox control already has the "Lines" property, which returns a string array whose elements are individual lines in the control, so no splitting needed. However, as SH pointed out, using a single textbox for full contact info is not a very good idea. Save yourself some headache and use multiple textboxes.

[mstevens33]

The code is not working though, it freezes up the program when I try to run it, is there a way to end a line using the carriage return?

[MrCrow]

mstevens33,

Take out the multiline textbox and use a listbox instead. Then, add the necessary textboxes and this code should work for your purposes:

Private Sub btnConc_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles btnConc.Click
        Dim name As String = txtName.Text
        Dim street As String = txtStreet.Text
        Dim city_st_zip As String = txtCityStZip.Text
        Dim home_ph As String = txtHomePh.Text
        Dim work_ph As String = txtWorkPh.Text
        lstOutput.Items.Clear()
        lstOutput.Items.Add(name)
        lstOutput.Items.Add(street)
        lstOutput.Items.Add(city_st_zip)
        lstOutput.Items.Add(home_ph)
        lstOutput.Items.Add(work_ph)
End Sub

[mstevens33]

This is for a class assignment, and the teacher is requiring a single text box. However, I did get it to work using a split command, and setting up an array.

Option Explicit On
Option Strict On
'Acme Info
Public Class Form1

    Private Sub btnConc_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles btnConc.Click
        Dim strInfo As String
        Dim aryInfo() As String
        Dim I As Integer
        Dim strFName As String
        Dim strLName As String
        Dim strAddress As String
        Dim strCity As String
        Dim strState As String
        Dim strZip As String
        Dim strHPhone As String
        Dim strWPhone As String

        strInfo = txtInfo.Text

        aryInfo = strInfo.Split(CChar(vbCrLf))

That code works perfectly for the project.
Thanks for all the suggestions, one last question though, does anyone know how to test a string to see if it contains any numbers?

[DataMiser]

String.IndexOf allows you to search for a string within a string so this is one method of course you would have to loop it from 0 to 9 to see if it contains any numbers.
IsNumeric() will test a string to see if that string is a numeric value

TryParse will also try to convert a string to a number and will let you know if it is not a valid number for the data type you are trying to parse.