The old switcheroo (switch position in file)

Question

Hi All,

I would really appreciate if somebody could help me/offer advice on this.

I have a file, probably about 50000 lines long, these files are generated on a weekly basis. each line is identical in terms of type of content.

original file:

address^name^notes

but i need to perform a switch. i need to be able to switch (on each and every line) the address with the name. so after the switch has been done, the names will be first, and then addresses and then notes, like so:

result file:

name^address^notes

Answer 1

50,000 isn't that much these days, so simply reading in the whole file and outputting the wanted format should work fine for you:

string[] lines = File.ReadAllLines(fileName);
string newLine = string.Empty;

foreach (string line in lines)
{
    string[] items = line.Split(myItemDelimiter);
    newLine = string.Format("{0},{1},{2}", items[1], items[0], items[2]);
    // Append to new file here...
}

Answer 2

Go go gadget REGEX!

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;

namespace ConsoleApplication1
{
    class Program
    {
        static string Switcheroo(string input)
        {
            return System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.Replace
                (input,
                 @"^([^^]+)\^([^^]+)\^(.+)$",
                 "$2^$1^$3",
                 System.Text.RegularExpressions.RegexOptions.Multiline);
        }

        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            string input = "address 1^name 1^notes1\n" +
                     "another address^another name^more notes\n" +
                     "last address^last name^last set of notes";

            string output = Switcheroo(input);
            Console.WriteLine(output);
            Console.ReadKey(true);
        }
    }
}

Answer 3

How about this?

StreamWriter sw = new StreamWriter("c:\\output.txt");
        StreamReader sr = new StreamReader("c:\\input.txt");
        string inputLine = "";

        while ((inputLine = sr.ReadLine()) != null)
        {
            String[] values = null;
            values = inputLine.Split('^');
            sw.WriteLine("{0}^{1}^{2}", values[1], values[0], values[2]);
        }
        sr.Close();
        sw.Close();