How do I get these values from a string?

Question

The webservice returns the following string

"ID: xxxx Status: yyyy"

How do I get the value ID value without the "ID :" text, and "Status" value without the "Status: " text.

Id value should be xxxx Status value should be yyyy

the value length is unknown.

Answer 1

One way would be with a regular expression.

This has the advantage of 'naturally' validating that the string returned by the web-service matches your expected format, allowing you to easily deal with bad input.

For example:

Regex regex = new Regex(@"^ID:\s*(.+)\s*Status:\s*(.+)$");
Match match = regex.Match(input);

// If the input doesn't match the expected format..
if (!match.Success)
    throw new ArgumentException("...");

string id = match.Groups[1].Value; // Group 0 is the whole match
string status = match.Groups[2].Value;

---

^         Start of string
ID:       Verbatim text
\s*       0 or more whitespaces
(.+)      'ID' group (you can use a named group if you like)
\s*       0 or more whitespaces
Status:   Verbatim text
\s*       0 or more whitespaces
(.+)      'Status' group
$         End of string

If you can clarify what xxxx and yyyy can be (alphabets, numbers, etc.), we might be able to provide a more robust regular expression.

Answer 2

Use something like this:

string s = "ID: xxxx Status: yyyy";
string[] words = s.Split(' ');
string id = s[1];
string status = s[3];

You can cast/convert the value to other data types as may be required.