string[] management help (C#))

Question

ok, so ill cut to the chase here. and to be clear, im looking for code examples where possible.

so, i have a normal string, lets say,

string mystring = "this is my string i want to use";

ok, now that i have my string, i split it by the space with

string[] splitArray = mystring.Split(new char[] { ' ' });

ok, so now i have splitArray[0] through splitArray[7]. now, i need to do some fancy things with the string that i normally wouldnt need to do. here are a few:

i need to cut off the first word, so i am left with the other 7 words, so that i have something like:

string myfirstword = "this";
mystring = "is my string i want to use";

now, i will need to use mystring over and over again, using different parts of it at different times, and depending on the string i will have no idea how long, it will be. so i will give some examples of things ill need.

first, ill need to know, how many words are there (this is easy, just throwing it in) second, ill need some way of using things like,

string secondword = splitArray[1];
string everythingAfterTheSecondWord = splitArray[2+];

if you noticed, i included a [2+] ... the + indicating that i want all strings in the array put back together, spaces in all, into a string. so for example,

string examplestring = "this is my example for my stack overflow question";
string[] splitArray2 = examplestring.Split(new char[] { ' ' });

now, if i called on splitArray2[4+] i would want a return of "for my stack overflow question". now obviously its not as simple as adding a + to a string array.. but thats what i need, and under the current situation i have tried many other easier ways that simply to not work.

ALSO, if i called on something like splitArray2[2-5] i would want, words 2 through 5 obviously.

Summary: i need greater management of my string[] arrays, and i need to be able to find, every word after word *, need to be able to strip out random words in the string while leaving the rest of the string intact, and need to be able to find string m through n

Thanks!

Answer 1

Well, to do the "every word starting at word X" you could do this:

string newString = string.join(splitArray," ",x);

To get y words starting at x, do this:

string newString = string.join(splitArray," ",x,y);

To get the number of words:

int wordCount= splitArray.Length;

Putting it all together, words x-y goes like this:

string newString = string.join(splitArray," ",x, splitArray.Length-x+1);

Answer 2

Most of what you're looking for can be achieved with a List<string>. Briefly:

string mystring = "this is my string i want to use";

List<string> splitArray = new List<string>(mystring.Split(new char[] { ' ' }));
string firstWord = splitArray[0];

// mystring2 = "is my string i want to use"
splitArray.RemoveAt(0);
string mystring2 = String.Join(" ", splitArray.ToArray());

To do the more complicated things you describe with splitArray[2+] requires LINQ though, and hence .NET 3.5.

List<string> everythingAfterTheSecondWord = splitArray.Skip(2).ToList();

For splitArray[2-5]:

List<string> arraySlice = splitArray.Skip(2).Take(3).ToList();