C#.NET Fetch Tab Character from XML Attribute

All,

Process: map Flat File to Application Object.

Meta Data: stored in Xml file. Contains field name, delimter, and order number each stored in an attribute.

Issue: When fetching the delimiter attribute in Application code, the Tab Character (\t) comes through like this: \\t (double backslash t).

Xml Sample:

<field name= "Field1" delimiter='\t' orderNum="1"/>

Code Sample:

attrVal = node.Attributes["delimiter"].Value;

Issue: I'm trying to split each line in the file on the delimiter. Something like:

string [] delim = new string[] { attrVal };
string line = streamReader.ReadLine();  
string[] record = line.Split(delim, StringSplitOptions.None);

However, because the delimiter is \\t(double backslash t), the Split function doesn't recognize it.

Questions: Should I 开发者_如何学Cstrip off that first backslash using substring (is that even possible since it's an escape)? Is there a different way I should be accessing the attribute in the Xml file so it won't escape the first backslash? Any info would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Joe

---

You can try using Regex.Unescape(string).

String str = "string \\nstring";
Console.WriteLine(str);

Prints: 

string \nstring

and

String str = "string \\nstring";
Console.WriteLine(Regex.Unescape(str));

Prints: 

string 
string

---

<field name= "Field1" delimiter='\t' orderNum="1"/>

This is interpreted as the two characters \ and t and not as tab - that is your problem.

You can encode tab in XML the following way:

<field name= "Field1" delimiter="&#x9;" orderNum="1"/>