Correct way of searching a string for character in C#

Glenn Patton

Hi All,
I need to search a string for an '=' sign,
string Text = "";
int Gotit = 0;

Text = richTextBox2.Text;
Gotit = Text.IndexOf("=",7,1);
//MessageBox.Show(richTextBox2.Text);
if (Gotit >1)
{
MessageBox.Show("Got It!");
}
The bit of code above will find the equals at a set location (where it happens to be in the string), What I need to is search to see if Text has more than one '=' in it. My thinking was use the above code to find one '=' something like the below

if (Gotit >1)
{
//MessageBox.Show("Got It!");
for (int a = 7; a < Text.Length; a++)
{
Gotit2 = Text.IndexOf("=", a, 1);
MessageBox.Show("Hello");
break;
}
bearing in mind the following Text.Length will always be greater than 7 the location of the first '=', this however seems to detect the first '=' (and only one if there is only one) in Text. HELP!

Glenn
=-=- Also why is a++ unreachable, is due to the compiler seeing Text being equal to "" at compile time but when it is used Text.Length does not equal 0 -=-=-=

5 Replies

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Vulpes14y ago
Accepted answer
Here's another traditional way of doing it which you sometimes see trotted out in response to questions such as this as it's only one line:

int count = Text.Split('=').Length - 1;

Personally, I've never been keen on this approach as the Split method creates an array which then needs to be garbage collected.

The LINQ approach, also one line, would be:

int count = Text.Count(c => c == '=');

That also does some fancy footwork behind the scenes but is much loved by many developers nowadays :)
Glenn Patton14y ago
Even More Thanks!!!
Glenn Patton14y ago
Even More Thanks!!!
Glenn Patton14y ago
Thanks
Vulpes14y ago
Using traditional code (i.e. not regular expressions or LINQ), you could do this:

int count = 0;

foreach(char c in Text)
{
if (c == '=') count++;
}

MessageBox.Show("The number of equals signs found is " + count.ToString());