VB.NET Language in a Nutshell, Second Edition

Name

Split Function

Class

Microsoft.VisualBasic.Strings

Syntax

Split(expression, [delimiter[, limit[, compare]]])

expression (required; String)

A string to be broken up into multiple strings.

delimiter (optional; String)

The character used to delimit the substrings in expression.

limit (optional; Integer)

The maximum number of strings to return.

compare (optional; CompareMethod constant)

The method of comparison. Possible values are CompareMethod.Binary (the default) or CompareMethod.Text.

Return Value

A String array containing the substrings of expression delimited by delimiter

Description

Parses a single string containing delimited values into an array

Rules at a Glance

• If expression is a zero-length string, Split returns an empty array.

• If delimiter is not found in expression, Split returns the entire string in element 0 of the returned array.

• If delimiter is omitted, a space character (” “) is used as the delimiter.

• If limit is omitted or its value is -1, all strings are returned.

• The default comparison method is CompareMethod.Binary.

• Once one less than limit has been reached, the remainder of the string is placed, unprocessed, into the next element of the returned array. This is important, because it can lead to unexpected results. For instance, the code:

  Dim s(  ) As String
  s = Split("x y z", " ", 1, CompareMethod.Text)
  Console.WriteLine(s(0))

  prints:

  x y z

  because the Split function stuffs the remaining portion of the original string into the last array element. This leaves no array elements ...