C#: Looping through lines of multiline string

Question

What is a good way to loop through each line of a multiline string without using much more memory (for example without splitting it into an array)?

Answer 1

I suggest using a combination of StringReader and my LineReader class, which is part of MiscUtil but also available in this StackOverflow answer - you can easily copy just that class into your own utility project. You'd use it like this:

string text = @"First line
second line
third line";

foreach (string line in new LineReader(() => new StringReader(text)))
{
    Console.WriteLine(line);
}

Looping over all the lines in a body of string data (whether that's a file or whatever) is so common that it shouldn't require the calling code to be testing for null etc :) Having said that, if you do want to do a manual loop, this is the form that I typically prefer over Fredrik's:

using (StringReader reader = new StringReader(input))
{
    string line;
    while ((line = reader.ReadLine()) != null)
    {
        // Do something with the line
    }
}

This way you only have to test for nullity once, and you don't have to think about a do/while loop either (which for some reason always takes me more effort to read than a straight while loop).

Answer 2

You can use a StringReader to read a line at a time:

using (StringReader reader = new StringReader(input))
{
    string line = string.Empty;
    do
    {
        line = reader.ReadLine();
        if (line != null)
        {
            // do something with the line
        }

    } while (line != null);
}

Answer 3

I know this has been answered, but I'd like to add my own answer:

using (var reader = new StringReader(multiLineString))
{
    for (string line = reader.ReadLine(); line != null; line = reader.ReadLine())
    {
        // Do something with the line
    }
}

Answer 4

from MSDN for StringReader

    string textReaderText = "TextReader is the abstract base " +
        "class of StreamReader and StringReader, which read " +
        "characters from streams and strings, respectively.\n\n" +

        "Create an instance of TextReader to open a text file " +
        "for reading a specified range of characters, or to " +
        "create a reader based on an existing stream.\n\n" +

        "You can also use an instance of TextReader to read " +
        "text from a custom backing store using the same " +
        "APIs you would use for a string or a stream.\n\n";

    Console.WriteLine("Original text:\n\n{0}", textReaderText);

    // From textReaderText, create a continuous paragraph 
    // with two spaces between each sentence.
    string aLine, aParagraph = null;
    StringReader strReader = new StringReader(textReaderText);
    while(true)
    {
        aLine = strReader.ReadLine();
        if(aLine != null)
        {
            aParagraph = aParagraph + aLine + " ";
        }
        else
        {
            aParagraph = aParagraph + "\n";
            break;
        }
    }
    Console.WriteLine("Modified text:\n\n{0}", aParagraph);

Answer 5

Here's a quick code snippet that will find the first non-empty line in a string:

string line1;
while (
    ((line1 = sr.ReadLine()) != null) &&
    ((line1 = line1.Trim()).Length == 0)
)
{ /* Do nothing - just trying to find first non-empty line*/ }

if(line1 == null){ /* Error - no non-empty lines in string */ }

Answer 6

Try using String.Split Method:

string text = @"First line
second line
third line";

foreach (string line in text.Split('\n'))
{
    // do something
}

Answer 7

Sometimes I think we can overcomplicate the solution just to avoid repeating one line of code. This is the reason I landed on this question in the first place.

After thinking about it for a bit I came to the conclusion that the simplest solution is to repeat the ReadLine before and inside the loop.

using (var stringReader = new StringReader(input))
{
    var line = await stringReader.ReadLineAsync();

    while (line != null)
    {
        // do something
        line = await stringReader.ReadLineAsync();
    }
}

I realize this might be considered to not follow the DRY principle, but I think it's worth considering given the simplicity.

Answer 8

You could use an extension method:

public static IEnumerable<string> EnumerateLines(this string source)
{
  ArgumentNullException.ThrowIfNull(source);

  using StringReader reader = new StringReader(source);

  while(reader.ReadLine() is { } line)
  {
    yield return line;
  }
}