How to split string by string delimiter? Unexpected String.Split(“<br>”.ToCharArray()) behavior

I have input string like this (pasted from .NET debugger):

"g: 17.00 2D nap<br>ng: 14.30 2D dub ; 17.15 3D nap<br>ng: 14.30 3D dub ; 17.15 2D nap<br>ng: 17.00 2D dub<br>ng: 17.00 3D dub"


I'm trying to split it by "<br>":

"<br>"

var items = mystring.Split("<br>".ToCharArray()); // 7 elements


I'm getting 7 list elements instead of 5.

It looks like Split function splits also by ";" separator.

Split

For now I found workaround like this:

var items = mystring.Replace("<br>", "|").Split("|".ToCharArray()); // 5 elements


but what is going on?

2 Answers
2

Your issue is in the use of ToCharArray().

ToCharArray()

The String.Split() overload that takes a char, which you're using, will use each individual character as a delimiter: therefore, by passing in "<br>".ToCharArray(), which gives the constituent characters of <br>, you're splitting your string by any of <, b, r or >, which you'll agree is not what you want.

String.Split()

char

"<br>".ToCharArray()

<br>

<

b

r

>

Now, there isn't an overload for splitting by a single string with no options, but it's pretty easy to circumvent this:

var items = mystring.Split(new "<br>" , StringSplitOptions.None);


Try using RegEx.Split

RegEx.Split

var items = RegEx.Split(mystring, "<br>");


This will split on exact matches of <br> and not split on the characters individually as said in other answers.

<br>

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