how to split a string by another string?

Question

I have a string in following format

"TestString 1 <^> TestString 2 <^> Test String3

Which i want to split by "<^>" string.

Using following statement it gives the output i want

"TestString 1 <^> TestString 2 <^> Test String3"
 .Split("<^>".ToCharArray(), StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries)

But if my string contains "<" , ">" or "^" anywhere in the text then above split statement will consider that as well

Any idea how to split only for "<^>" string ?

Answer 1

By using ToCharArray you are saying "split on any of these characters"; to split on the sequence "<^>" you must use the overload that accepts a string[]:

string[] parts = yourValue.Split(new string[]{"<^>"}, StringSplitOptions.None);

Or in C# 3:

string[] parts = yourValue.Split(new[]{"<^>"}, StringSplitOptions.None);

Answer 2

Edit: As others pointed already out: String.Split has a good overload for your usecase. The answer below is still correct (as in working), but - not the way to go.

---

That's because this string.Split overload takes an array of separator chars. Each of them splits the string.

You want: Regex.Split

Regex regex = new Regex(@"<\^>");
string[] substrings = regex.Split("TestString 1 <^> TestString 2 <^>  Test String3");

And - a sidenote:

"<^>".ToCharArray()

is really just a fancy way to say

new[]{'<', '^', '>'}

Answer 3

Try another overloaded Split method:

public string[] Split(
    string[] separator,
    StringSplitOptions options
)

So in you case it may looks like:

var result = 
    yourString.Split(new string[] {"<^>"},StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries);

Hope, this helps.