How to split() a delimited string to a List<String>

Question

I had this code:

    String[] lineElements;       
    . . .
    try
    {
        using (StreamReader sr = new StreamReader("TestFile.txt"))
        {
            String line;
            while ((line = sr.ReadLine()) != null)
            {
                lineElements = line.Split(',');
                . . .

but then thought I should maybe go with a List instead. But this code:

    List<String> listStrLineElements;
    . . .
    try
    {
        using (StreamReader sr = new StreamReader("TestFile.txt"))
        {
            String line;
            while ((line = sr.ReadLine()) != null)
            {
                listStrLineElements = line.Split(',');
. . .

...gives me, "Cannot implicitly convert type 'string[]' to 'System.Collections.Generic.List'"

Answer 1

string.Split() returns an array - you can convert it to a list using ToList():

listStrLineElements = line.Split(',').ToList();

Note that you need to import System.Linq to access the .ToList() function.

Answer 2

Either use:

List<string> list = new List<string>(array);

or from LINQ:

List<string> list = array.ToList();

Or change your code to not rely on the specific implementation:

IList<string> list = array; // string[] implements IList<string>

Answer 3

Include using namespace System.Linq

List<string> stringList = line.Split(',').ToList();

you can make use of it with ease for iterating through each item.

foreach(string str in stringList)
{

}

String.Split() returns an array, hence convert it to a list using ToList()

Answer 4

Just u can use with using System.Linq;

List<string> stringList = line.Split(',')     // this is array
 .ToList();     // this is a list which you can loop in all split string