vb.NET Arrays - Turning a String into a Table - arrays

Question

I am working on a windows form application, and I have it reading a text file that has information stored in the form of a table. It looks somewhat like this:
ID Name URL
1 client1 client1.com
2 client2 client2.com
3 client3 client3.com
And so on...
What I need to do is get this data to be read from a stream reader, that throws it into a string, including vbtabs and newlines, and then create an array out of that information, so that it acts as a table that I can then later pull information from based on the column names (i.e. ID, Name, URL) and the ID number. I do not have a lot of experience with arrays, so I was hoping to get some help here as how to do this.
The code I have so far for this functionality is:
Dim readCLientTxtListReader As New StreamReader(strReplicationDataClientAccessListPath)
Dim strClientAccessList As String = readCLientTxtListReader.ReadToEnd
Console.Write(strClientAccessList)
readCLientTxtListReader.Close()
Dim i As Integer
Dim aryClientAccessList() As String
aryClientAccessList = strClientAccessList.Split(vbTab)
For i = 0 To UBound(aryClientAccessList)
Console.WriteLine(aryClientAccessList)
Next i
The problem about this is that it just creates a new instance of the array as each individual string of characters between each vbtab. which means, the arrays look like:
ID
Name
URL
1
client1
client1.com
2
client2
client2.com
3
client3
client3.com
Which is not really what I need.
Any ideas?
If you need more info, let me know.
Edit: As an added side-note, I believe multidimensional arrays are what I am looking for, and am currently looking them up now, but if you have any more information on these, I would greatly appreciate it.

Answer 1

The way I am reading your end goal is that you want to have an array that that contains each row of the file and that each row should be an array with the tokens for that row in it. If that is correct, then you could do something like this:
var lines = new List<string[]>();
using (var strReplicationDataClientAccessListPath = new FileStream("path", FileMode.Open))
using (var streamReader = new StreamReader(strReplicationDataClientAccessListPath))
{
while (streamReader.Peek() >= 0)
{
var line = streamReader.ReadLine();
if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(line))
lines.Add(line.Split('\t'));
}
}
foreach (var line in lines)
{
foreach (var token in line)
Console.Write(token);
Console.WriteLine();
}
I have not done VB in a long time but here is the C# which can be run through a converter to get VB.NET. Also I did it using a List, if you need an array at the end you can do:
lines.ToArray();

Answer 2

This is rclements code
converted to VB
Dim lines = New List(Of String())()
Using strReplicationDataClientAccessListPath = New FileStream("path", FileMode.Open)
Using streamReader = New StreamReader(strReplicationDataClientAccessListPath)
While streamReader.Peek() >= 0
Dim line = streamReader.ReadLine()
If Not String.IsNullOrEmpty(line) Then
lines.Add(line.Split(ControlChars.Tab))
End If
End While
End Using
End Using
For Each line As var In lines
For Each token As var In line
Console.Write(token)
Next
Console.WriteLine()
Next

Answer 3

You are trying to simulate CSV -> DataTable workflow, where vbTab is your CSV delimiter, and DataTable is your storage structure (you can query by field name, and by row index). There are numerous solutions on the internet, just google for CSV to DataTable.
Here is one, linked from here (SO answer).
If you still want multi-dimensional arrays, I recommended a List(Of String()) instead of String(,), because you would then not need to manage memory allocation. Each line of data would be an element of List, and a single dimension array, where column values are array elements 0-N.
To read from file, you can use IO.File.ReadAllLines.

Answer 4

Is it what you need?
'Read Values from the text file and store in a DataTable
Dim dt As New DataTable
Using TextReader As New IO.StreamReader("C:\Data.txt")
Dim Line As String = TextReader.ReadLine
If String.IsNullOrEmpty(Line) Then
MsgBox("No Data")
Exit Sub
End If
With Line.Split(vbTab)
dt.Columns.Add(.GetValue(0))
dt.Columns.Add(.GetValue(1))
dt.Columns.Add(.GetValue(2))
End With
Do
Line = TextReader.ReadLine
If Line Is Nothing Then Exit Do
dt.Rows.Add(Line.Split(vbTab))
Loop
End Using
'Print the DataTable header
For Each Column As DataColumn In dt.Columns
Console.Write(Column.ColumnName & vbTab)
Next
Console.WriteLine(vbCrLf & New String("-", 24))
'Print the DataTable contents
For Each Row As DataRow In dt.Rows
Console.WriteLine(Row("ID") & vbTab & Row("Name") & vbTab & Row("URL"))
Next
I have added another solution using List in case you prefer it more than the DataTable:
'Read Values from the text file and store in a List of type Tuples
Dim Values As New List(Of Tuple(Of String, String, String))
Using TextReader As New IO.StreamReader("C:\Data.txt")
Dim Line As String = TextReader.ReadLine
Do Until Line Is Nothing
With Line.Split(vbTab)
Values.Add(Tuple.Create(.GetValue(0).ToString, .GetValue(1).ToString, .GetValue(2).ToString))
End With
Line = TextReader.ReadLine
Loop
End Using
'Print the List contents
For Each T As Tuple(Of String, String, String) In Values
Console.WriteLine(T.Item1 & vbTab & T.Item2 & vbTab & T.Item3)
Next