Returning values from text file : C#

Question

I have a .txt file that contains information about vehicles that I add via another project. I want to read the text file, retrieve each VIN number, and place just the actual number itself in a combo box when the form is loaded. The info for each vehicle in the txt file looks like:

Model: 'model'

Manufacturer: 'manufacturer'

VIN Number: 'VIN number'

This is what I have:

using (StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(@"D:\carCenter\carCenter\bin\Debug\Vehicles.txt"))
        {
            string[] lines = File.ReadAllLines(@"D:\carCenter\carCenter\bin\Debug\Vehicles.txt");
            foreach(string line in lines)
            {
                if (line.Contains("VIN"))
                {
                    Char colon = ':';
                    string[] vins = line.Split(new string[] {"VIN Number: "}, StringSplitOptions.None);

                    for (int i = 0; i < 1; i++)
                    {
                        foreach(var vin in vins)
                        {
                            vinComboBox.Items.Add(vins[i]);
                        }

                    }

                }
            }

Answer 1

One solution is to have a general purpose function like this:

private String GetDataToRightOfLastColon(String line)
{
  line = line.Trim();

  var indexOfLastColon = line.LastIndexOf(':');

  /* If line does not contain a ':' character,
     or ':' is the last non-space character in line,
     throw an exception. */
  if ((indexOfLastColon == -1) || (indexOfLastColon == (line.Length - 1)))
    throw new ArgumentException(
      String.Format("The line '{0}' does not have the correct format.", line));

  return line.Substring(indexOfLastColon + 1).Trim();
}

Next, apply that function via LINQ to process the text file and populate the combobox:

vinComboBox.Items.AddRange(
  File
  .ReadAllLines(@"D:\carCenter\carCenter\bin\Debug\Vehicles.txt")
  .Where(line => line.Trim().StartsWith("VIN"))
  .Select(line => GetDataToRightOfLastColon(line))
  .ToArray()
);