C# How to skip String line numbers in Array after processing from Text File?

The program that was created allows users to simply parse a log text file. The program simply utilizes grouping of the various parts of the text files into the variable "sections" array.

However is there a way to skip the number of lines of the "sections" array? I have tried using the "split" method but it does not work as it skips a number of "sections" instead of the number of lines in each "sections".

The lines in each sections should be removed are:

Restore Point Info

Description   : Installed VMware Tools

Type          : Application Install

Creation Time : Mon Nov 29 16:53:12 2010

Therefore may someone please advise on the codes? Thanks!

The codes:

namespace Testing {
    class Program {
        static void Main(string[] args) {
            TextReader tr = new StreamReader(@"C:\Test\new.txt");
            String SplitBy = "----------------------------------------";

            // Skip 5 lines of the original text file
            for(var i = 0; i < 5; i++) { 
                tr.ReadLine();
            }

            // Read the reststring 
            String fullLog = tr.ReadToEnd();
            String[] sections = fullLog.Split(new string[] { SplitBy }, StringSplitOptions.None);
            //String[] lines = sections.Skip(5).ToArray();
            int t = 0;
            // Tried using foreach (String r in sections.skip(4)) but skips sections instead of the Text lines found within each sections
            foreach (String r in sections) {
                Console.WriteLine("The times are : " + t);
                Console.WriteLine(r);
                Console.WriteLine(sections[6]);
Console.WriteLine("============================================================");
                t++;
            }
        }
    }
}

An Example of the Text log file:

Restore Point Info

Description   : System Checkpoint

Type          : System Checkpoint

Creation Time : Mon Nov 29 16:51:52 2010

J:\syscrawl\Restore\RP1\snapshot\_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SYSTEM
ControlSet001\Enum\USBStor not found.

----------------------------------------

Restore Point Info
Description   : Installed Hex Workshop v5
Type          : Application Install
Creation Time : Fri Dec  3 04:35:57 2010
J:\syscrawl\Restore\RP10\snapshot\_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SYSTEM

USBStor
ControlSet001\Enum\USBStor

CdRom&Ven_SanDisk&Prod_Ultra_Backup&Rev_8.32 [Wed Dec  1 07:39:09 2010]
  S/N: 2584820A2890B317&1 [Wed Dec  1 07:39:22 2010]
    FriendlyName  : SanDisk U开发者_C百科ltra Backup USB Device

CdRom&Ven_WD&Prod_Virtual_CD_070A&Rev_1032 [Wed Dec  1 07:31:33 2010]
  S/N: 575836314331304639303339&1 [Fri Dec  3 03:03:36 2010]
    FriendlyName  : WD Virtual CD 070A USB Device

Disk&Ven_SanDisk&Prod_Ultra_Backup&Rev_8.32 [Wed Dec  1 07:39:09 2010]
  S/N: 2584820A2890B317&0 [Wed Dec  1 07:39:19 2010]
    FriendlyName  : SanDisk Ultra Backup USB Device
    ParentIdPrefix: 8&2f23e350&0

Disk&Ven_WD&Prod_My_Passport_070A&Rev_1032 [Wed Dec  1 07:31:33 2010]
  S/N: 575836314331304639303339&0 [Fri Dec  3 03:03:36 2010]
    FriendlyName  : WD My Passport 070A USB Device

Other&Ven_WD&Prod_SES_Device&Rev_1032 [Wed Dec  1 07:31:33 2010]
  S/N: 575836314331304639303339&2 [Fri Dec  3 04:08:49 2010]

----------------------------------------

Restore Point Info

Description   : Installed VMware Tools

Type          : Application Install

Creation Time : Mon Nov 29 16:53:12 2010

J:\syscrawl\Restore\RP2\snapshot\_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SYSTEM

ControlSet001\Enum\USBStor not found.

---

There are multiple solutions available depending on how maintainable you want to code.

• Hard-coding the text to remove so that you find and replace it with empty string
• Read lines one by one and you have a list of all lines to ignore and you check against them
• Use a regular expression to extract what you need [PREFERRED]

Reality is the log file you are trying to parse does not seem to be generated by your software, i.e. you do not own the format (VMWare does). So I believe this format could be changed by any update so hard-coding the format text you need or you do not need could make your software very brittle.

I would recommend using Regex, perhaps you would spend a while writing the expression but it is clean and useful.

---

Since the number of lines you want to keep can change, one solution would be to use a token/character at the start of every line you want to remove, that you are sure won't appear on the other log lines. For example:

$Restore Point Info

$Description   : Installed VMware Tools

$Type          : Application Install

$Creation Time : Mon Nov 29 16:53:12 2010

Now you can do:

if(line[0]=="$")
    continue;

EDIT: Since you can only read the file

You could try a dirty way to do it, I think:

bool ShouldSkip(string line)

{
  return (line.StartsWith("Restore Point Info") || line.StartsWith("Description") || line.StartsWith("Type") || line.StartsWith("Creation Time"))
}

usage:

//in your main method
foreach(var line in lines)
{
  if(ShouldSkip(line))
    continue;
}

I don't know if this is what you're looking for.