C# Text File Input Multi-File Output

Question

I have a file that looks something like this:

|29923C|SomeGuy,NameHere1     |00039252|042311|Some Address Info Here |
|47422K|SomeGuy,NameHere2     |00039252|042311|Some Address Info Here |
|98753D|SomeGuy,NameHere3     |00039252|042311|Some Address Info Here |
|29923C|SomeGuy,NameHere4     |00039252|042311|Some Address Info Here |
|47422K|SomeGuy,NameHere5     |00039252|042311|Some Address Info Here |

I need to break the file up into multiple files based on the first 6 characters starting in position 2.

File 1 named 29923c.asc:

|29923C|SomeGuy,NameHere1     |00039252|042311|Some Address Info Here |
|29923C|SomeGuy,NameHere4     |00039252|042311|Some Address Info Here |

File 2 named 47422K.asc:

|47422K|SomeGuy,NameHere5     |00039252|042311|Some Address Info Here |
|47422K|SomeGuy,NameHere2     |00039252|042311|Some Address Info Here |

File 3 named 9875D.asc:

|98753D|SomeGuy,NameHere3     |00039252|042311|Some Address Info Here |

I don't know what will be in the file before the program gets it, just the format. The 6 digits will change depending on the customer. I don't know what they will be.

The only thing I know is the format.

Can anyone give me a suggestion as to how to dynamically obtain\maintain this information so that I can parse it out into individual files?

Answer 1

I suggest using a parser such a the TextFieldParser class.

You could read the data into memory, sort it using the first field then write out individual files.

Answer 2

List<string> lines ; // load lines form file

Dictionary<string,List<string>> dic = new Dictionary<string,List<string>>();
foreach(string line in lines) 
{
    string key = line.Split('|')[0];

    if(!dic.ContainsKey(key))
        dic.Add(key,new List<string>{line});
    else 
        dic[key].Add(line) 
}

foreach(var pair in dic) 
{
    //create file and store there pair.Value   
}