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Part of a class assignment I'm working on requires me to take isolate certain parts of a "students" info from a .txt file such as last name, first name, and gpa. While I can get the last name to appear properly, going beyond that is iffy, first names will be cut off or go to the middle initial seemingly randomly. I need help with having consistent cut off points based on markers (apostrophes) in the lines.

this is a sample of the .txt file Students2 which is located in the program's Bin Debug

(LIST (LIST 'Abbott 'Ashley 'J ) '8697387888 'ajabbott@mail.usi.edu 2.3073320999676614 )
(LIST (LIST 'Abbott 'Bradley 'M ) 'NONE 'bmabbott@mail.usi.edu 3.1915725161177115 )
(LIST (LIST 'Abbott 'Ryan 'T ) '8698689793 'rtabbott@mail.usi.edu 3.448215586562192 )
(LIST (LIST 'Abel 'Heather 'M ) '8698689386 'hmabel@mail.usi.edu 3.2517764202656974 )

Hopefully what I meant by markers makes sense, and the info is fake if anyone wondered.

The following is my current code, some of which was provided in an example.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using System.IO;

namespace ConsoleApplication61

class Program

 static void Main(string args)
 

 StreamReader inFile;
 string inLine;

 if (File.Exists("Students2.txt"))
 
 try
 



 using (StreamWriter Malachi = File.AppendText("Students2.txt"))
 
 Malachi.WriteLine("(LIST (LIST 'Constant 'Malachi 'J ) '1832878847 'mconstant@mail.usi.edu 4.0000000000000000 )");
 

 inFile = new StreamReader("Students2.txt");
 while ((inLine = inFile.ReadLine()) != null)
 
 int start = inLine.IndexOf("'");
 if (start >= 0)
 
 inLine = inLine.Substring(start);
 int end = inLine.IndexOf(" ");
 string lastname = inLine.Substring(0, end);
 int endTwo = inLine.IndexOf(" ");
 string firstname = inLine.Substring(end, endTwo);
 int endThree = inLine.IndexOf(" ");
 string email = inLine.Substring(endTwo, endThree);
 Console.WriteLine( lastname + firstname );

 
 
 


 catch (System.IO.IOException exc)
 
 Console.WriteLine("Error");
 
 
 

Again I'd like to know what I'm doing wrong in regards to cutting off at specific points. Any and all help is greatly appreciated.

you can use the split function and replace function to get what you are looking for something like this

 string test = "(LIST (LIST 'Constant 'Malachi 'J ) '1832878847 'mconstant@mail.usi.edu 4.0000000000000000 )";

 test = test.Replace(")","");

 string abc = test.Split(new string "'" , StringSplitOptions.None);

 Console.WriteLine("Last Name =" + abc[1]);
 Console.WriteLine("First Name =" + abc[2]);
 Console.WriteLine("Middle Initial =" + abc[3]);
 Console.WriteLine("Email gpa =" + abc[abc.Length-1]);

UPDATE

In case there is no apostrophe for gpa you can get those values as below, just replace the last line with this

 Console.WriteLine("Email =" + (abc[abc.Length-1]).Split(' ')[0]);
 Console.WriteLine("gpa =" + (abc[abc.Length-1]).Split(' ')[1]);

Here is a fiddle for it https://dotnetfiddle.net/vJYLXW

you need to update inLine every time you take off substring like -

int start = inLine.IndexOf("'");
 if (start >= 0)
 
 inLine = inLine.Substring(start);
 int end = inLine.IndexOf(" ");
 string lastname = inLine.Substring(0, end);
 inLine = inLine.Substring(end + 1);
 int endTwo = inLine.IndexOf(" ");
 string firstname = inLine.Substring(end, endTwo);
 inLine = inLine.Substring(endTwo + 1);
 int endThree = inLine.IndexOf(" ");
 string email = inLine.Substring(endTwo, endThree);
 .
 .

 

and so on.....

OR you take find next space after end point of first string like this -

int start = inLine.IndexOf("'");
 if (start >= 0)
 
 inLine = inLine.Substring(start);
 int end = inLine.IndexOf(" ");
 string lastname = inLine.Substring(0, end);
 int endTwo = inLine.IndexOf(' ', end + 1);
 string firstname = inLine.Substring(end, endTwo - end);
 int endThree = inLine.IndexOf(' ', endTwo + 1);
 string middleinitial = inLine.Substring(endTwo, endThree - endTwo);
 endThree += 2; // to escape ')' after middle initial
 int endFour = inLine.IndexOf(' ', endThree + 1);
 string phone = inLine.Substring(endThree, endFour - endThree);
 int endFive = inLine.IndexOf(' ', endFour + 1);
 string email = inLine.Substring(endFour, endFive - endFour);
 int endSix = inLine.IndexOf(' ', endFive + 1);
 string gpa = inLine.Substring(endFive, endSix - endFive);
 Console.WriteLine("Last Name - " + lastname);
 Console.WriteLine("First Name - " + firstname);
 Console.WriteLine("Middle Initial - " + middleinitial);
 Console.WriteLine("Phone - " + phone);
 Console.WriteLine("Email - " + email);
 Console.WriteLine("GPA - " + gpa);
 

But I would recommend string split option. Read about String.Split Method

 while ((inLine = inFile.ReadLine()) != null)
 
 var splits = inLine.Split(new ' ', ''' , StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries);
 if (splits.Length > 0)
 
 Console.WriteLine("Last Name - " + splits[2]);
 Console.WriteLine("First Name - " + splits[3]);
 Console.WriteLine("Middle Initial - " + splits[4]);
 Console.WriteLine("Phone - " + splits[6]);
 Console.WriteLine("Email - " + splits[7]);
 Console.WriteLine("GPA - " + splits[8]);
 

 Console.WriteLine("------------------------------------------------------");
 

It is much easier to get the desired fields with regexp:

Regex rPattern= new Regex(@"'([^'s]+)['s]+([^'s]+)['s]+([^'s]+)['s]+)['s]+([^'s]+)['s]+([^'s]+)['s]+([^'s]+)");

....

Match m = rPattern.Match(inLine );

if(m.Success) 
 

 string lastname = m.Groups[1].Value; 
 string firstname = m.Groups[2].Value; 
 string middlename = m.Groups[3].Value; 
 string phone = m.Groups[4].Value; 
 string email = m.Groups[5].Value; 
 string somenumber = m.Groups[6].Value; 

Your code can be something like this:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using System.IO;
//PTK: don't forget include following line. IT'S IMPORTANT !!!
using System.Text.RegularExpressions;


namespace ConsoleApplication61

class Program

 static void Main(string args)
 

 StreamReader inFile;
 string inLine;

 //PTK: patern for your fields
 Regex rPattern= new Regex(@"'([^'s]+)['s]+([^'s]+)['s]+([^'s]+)['s]+)['s]+([^'s]+)['s]+([^'s]+)['s]+([^'s]+)");

 if (File.Exists("Students2.txt"))
 
 try
 



 using (StreamWriter Malachi = File.AppendText("Students2.txt"))
 
 Malachi.WriteLine("(LIST (LIST 'Constant 'Malachi 'J ) '1832878847 'mconstant@mail.usi.edu 4.0000000000000000 )");
 

 inFile = new StreamReader("Students2.txt");
 while ((inLine = inFile.ReadLine()) != null)
 

 //PTK: match the current line with the pattern
 Match m = rPattern.Match(inLine );


 if(m.Success)
 

 string lastname = m.Groups[1].Value;
 string firstname = m.Groups[2].Value;
 string middlename = m.Groups[3].Value;
 string phone = m.Groups[4].Value;
 string email = m.Groups[5].Value;
 string somenumber = m.Groups[6].Value;

 Console.WriteLine( lastname + firstname );
 


 
 


 catch (System.IO.IOException exc)
 
 Console.WriteLine("Error");
 
 
 

You can see working demo here: https://dotnetfiddle.net/FrU4l5