How can I search an array in VB.NET?

Question

I want to be able to effectively search an array for the contents of a string.
Example:

dim arr() as string={"ravi","Kumar","Ravi","Ramesh"}

I pass the value is "ra" and I want it to return the index of 2 and 3.

How can I do this in VB.NET?

Answer 1

It's not exactly clear how you want to search the array. Here are some alternatives:

Find all items containing the exact string "Ra" (returns items 2 and 3):

Dim result As String() = Array.FindAll(arr, Function(s) s.Contains("Ra"))

Find all items starting with the exact string "Ra" (returns items 2 and 3):

Dim result As String() = Array.FindAll(arr, Function(s) s.StartsWith("Ra"))

Find all items containing any case version of "ra" (returns items 0, 2 and 3):

Dim result As String() = Array.FindAll(arr, Function(s) s.ToLower().Contains("ra"))

Find all items starting with any case version of "ra" (retuns items 0, 2 and 3):

Dim result As String() = Array.FindAll(arr, Function(s) s.ToLower().StartsWith("ra"))

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If you are not using VB 9+ then you don't have anonymous functions, so you have to create a named function.

Example:

Function ContainsRa(s As String) As Boolean
   Return s.Contains("Ra")
End Function

Usage:

Dim result As String() = Array.FindAll(arr, ContainsRa)

Having a function that only can compare to a specific string isn't always very useful, so to be able to specify a string to compare to you would have to put it in a class to have somewhere to store the string:

Public Class ArrayComparer

   Private _compareTo As String

   Public Sub New(compareTo As String)
      _compareTo = compareTo
   End Sub

   Function Contains(s As String) As Boolean
      Return s.Contains(_compareTo)
   End Function

   Function StartsWith(s As String) As Boolean
      Return s.StartsWith(_compareTo)
   End Function

End Class

Usage:

Dim result As String() = Array.FindAll(arr, New ArrayComparer("Ra").Contains)