Easiest way to split a string on newlines in .net?

Question

I need to split a string into newlines in .NET and the only way i know of to split strings is with the Split method. However that will not allow me to (easily) split on a newline, so what is the best way to do it?

Answer 1

To split on a string you need to use the overload that takes an array of strings:

string[] lines = theText.Split(new string[] { Environment.NewLine }, StringSplitOptions.None);

Edit:
If you want to handle different types of line breaks in a text, you can use the ability to match more than one string. This will correctly split on either type of line break, and preserve empty lines and spacing in the text:

string[] lines = theText.Split(new string[] { "\r\n", "\n" }, StringSplitOptions.None);

Answer 2

You should be able to split your string pretty easily, like so:

aString.Split(Environment.NewLine.ToCharArray());

Answer 3

I did not know about Environment.Newline, but I guess this is a very good solution.

My try would have been:

        string str = "Test Me\r\nTest Me\nTest Me";
        var splitted = str.Split('\n').Select(s => s.Trim()).ToArray();

The additional .Trim removes any \r or \n that might be still present (e. g. when on windows but splitting a string with os x newline characters). Probably not the fastest method though.

EDIT:

As the comments correctly pointed out, this also removes any whitespace at the start of the line or before the new line feed. If you need to preserve that whitespace, use one of the other options.

Answer 4

string[] lines = text.Split(
  Environment.NewLine.ToCharArray(), 
  StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyStrings);

The RemoveEmptyStrings option will make sure you don't have empty entries due to \n following a \r

(Edit to reflect comments:) Note that it will also discard genuine empty lines in the text. This is usually what I want but it might not be your requirement.