Joe Developer once had to read options from configuration file, where each line looked basically like this:
option: first;second;third;;fifth;
Each line consisted of option name, followed by few spaces, and its parameters delimited by semicolons. Now the question is: how would Joe get to those parameters? The most elegant way would be using Regular Expressions, but Joe has strong allergy to them. For this simple example String.Split method will do.
Joe rolled up his sleeves and crafted that beautiful masterpiece of code:
string options = @"option: first;second;third;;fifth;";
string[] strings = options.Split(';');
foreach (string s in strings)
Console.WriteLine(s);
Console.WriteLine("That's all. Press any key to exit.");
Console.ReadKey(false);
However, that didn't work quite as well as expected:
Joe successfully split each option to different line, but he had also some empty lines, as well as additional stuff along with first option. Fortunately Joe noticed that thanks to params keyword, he can pass more parameters to Split method. He quickly altered his code, by adding two more split characters, and changing foreach loop to for, to leave option element out.
string options = @"option: first;second;third;;fifth;";
string[] strings = options.Split(';', ':', ' ');
for (int i = 1; i < strings.Length; i++)
Console.WriteLine(strings[i]);
Console.WriteLine("That's all. Press any key to exit.");
Console.ReadKey(false);
Proud of himself Joe ran his program to notice, that the output, while better, still didn't look as he needed. While he managed to get each parameter into its own line, he still got those annoying empty lines.
His immediate idea was to add a condition, to check wether given string is empty before writing it out, but then he remembered the quote:
When debugging, novices insert corrective code; experts remove defective code. ~Richard Pattis
And since Joe was a true expert, he decided to remove the defect. He looked here and there, and discovered, that StringSplitOptions enum, was exactly what he needed. Fortunately, there was even an overload of Split method that accepted StringSplitOptions as one of its arguments. Joe quickly altered 2nd line of his code to:
string[] strings = options.Split(new char[] {';', ':', ' '}, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries);
And he finally was happy with what he saw when he ran the program. His happiness didn't last quite long, however. Only 'till he met his boss, to be exact, who told him, that only first two parameters are important, and all remaining should be left out.
I can do it! — Joe thought. — All I need to do is to limit the for loop to stop after two first elements. Then he thought — Why waste resources and time to split further, when all I need are just two first parameters. — He recalled the quote once again, and decided, that as true expert he would find another solution.
Then he found yet another overload, of Split method, that accepted additional parameter: integer, specifying maximum number of substrings to be produced. Joe quickly adjusted his code to the new requirements:
string options = @"option: first;second;third;;fifth;";
string[] strings = options.Split(new char[] {';', ':', ' '}, 4, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries);
for (int i = 1; i < strings.Length && i < 3; i++)
Console.WriteLine(strings[i]);
Console.WriteLine("That's all. Press any key to exit.");
Console.ReadKey(false);
Now he was really proud of himself — with one simple method, he was able to accomplish the task.