Convert an escaped string to an String Array

Question

I have this kind of String

string input="[\"Modell\",\"Jan.\",\"Feb.\",\"Mrz.\",\"Apr.\",\"Mai\",\"Jun.\",\"Jul.\",\"Aug.\",\"Sep.\",\"Okt.\",\"Nov.\",\"Dez.\"]";

I need to convert it into something like this:

string[] output;//convert "input" to it

I was looking at here,here and here, but it didn't help me.

How can I convert my string to string[] is this case ?

Is that a JSON input, or some format of your own? There's plenty of JSON deserialization libraries around. — Luaan
– Luaan, Commented Mar 31, 2016 at 9:00

cuongle · Accepted Answer · 2016-03-31 08:38:51Z

8

Your input has json format as array of string, so you can simply use the very popular library Newtonsoft.Json on nuget, and then deserialize back to array of string in C#:

var result = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<string[]>(input);

edited Mar 31, 2016 at 8:38

answered Mar 31, 2016 at 8:35

cuongle

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Comments

cuongle · Accepted Answer · 2016-03-31 13:17:42Z

-1

What about this:

var output = input.Trim(new[] { '[', ']' }).Split(',').Select(x => x.Trim('\"')).ToArray();

Although this might work for your example I recommend using the approach given by @Cuong Le using Json-Deserializer. It is much more robust and also handles nested structures.

edited Mar 31, 2016 at 13:17

cuongle

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answered Mar 31, 2016 at 8:34

MakePeaceGreatAgain

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2 Comments

xanatos Over a year ago

Won't remove the [ and ], won't solve the problem with substrings containing the ", like string input="[\"Mod\\\"ell\"]"

kkkk00999 Over a year ago

I changed it to 'input.Split(',').Select(x => x.Trim('\"')).ToArray<string>();' but I get ' [0]: "[\"Modell" [1]: "Jan." [2]: "Feb." [3]: "Mrz." [4]: "Apr." [5]: "Mai" [6]: "Jun." [7]: "Jul." [8]: "Aug." [9]: "Sep." [10]: "Okt." [11]: "Nov." [12]: "Dez.\"]"' actually "Dez" and "Modell" have a backslash too much..

IRAndreas · Accepted Answer · 2016-03-31 08:42:04Z

-1

Not very nice, but works:

string[] output = input.Replace("[", "").Replace("\"", "").Replace("]", "").Split(',').ToArray<string>();

answered Mar 31, 2016 at 8:42

IRAndreas

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3 Comments

CodeCaster Over a year ago

"works" - for this specific example. The input is JSON, and for that you simply use a JSON parsing library. The input may contain commas, quotes and nested arrays as well.

Luaan Over a year ago

@CodeCaster The input looks like JSON, and may be JSON. But unless it's JSON by contract, that assumption is kind of dangerous. I've dealt with so many "XML-like" formats in the past that I really don't like those kinds of assumptions anymore :D It's just way too likely that the input is produced by mindlessly slapping strings together, just like it used to be done with INI, CSV, XML or even HTTP before.

CodeCaster Over a year ago

@Luaan questions as vague as this should not be answered in the first place. Assuming it is not JSON and writing your own parser is at least as dangerous.

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