Remove Extra Space in String - C#

Question

Hello,

I have a CSV file as below:

In the last row, I have \t\t instead of space. I wrote a method (RemoveWhiteSpaceInString) but I cannot detect extra space. Is there any differences between ' ' and \t?

using System.Reflection;  
using System.Text;  
  
namespace ConsoleApp2  
{  
    internal class Program  
    {  
        static string RemoveWhiteSpaceInString(string pattern)  
        {  
            int count = 0;  
            StringBuilder SB = new StringBuilder();  
            bool PrevChar = false;  
            foreach (char item in pattern)  
            {  
                bool NextChar = item == ' ';  
                if (!NextChar || !PrevChar)  
                {  
                    SB.Append(item);  
                    PrevChar = NextChar;  
                }  
            }  
            return SB.ToString();  
        }  
        static void Main(string[] args)  
        {  
            string dirPath = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location;  
            DirectoryInfo dirInfo = new(dirPath);  
            while (!(dirInfo.Name == "bin"))  
            {  
                if (dirInfo.Parent == null) throw new Exception("fge");  
                dirInfo = dirInfo.Parent;  
            }  
            dirInfo = dirInfo.Parent;  
            string DataPath = Path.Combine(dirInfo.FullName, "Data");  
            DataPath = Path.Combine(DataPath, "Order.csv");  
  
            StreamReader mainFile = new(DataPath);  
            mainFile.ReadLine();  
  
            while (!mainFile.EndOfStream)  
            {  
                string[] fields = mainFile.ReadLine().Split(',', StringSplitOptions.TrimEntries);  
                foreach (string item in fields)  
                {  
                    Console.Write($"{RemoveWhiteSpaceInString(item),-20}");  
                }  
                Console.WriteLine();  
            }  
        }  
    }  
}  

Answer 1

Try the following done in a console project but will work with any project type.

using System.Text.RegularExpressions;  
  
namespace ConsoleApp1  
{  
    internal class Program  
    {  
        static void Main(string[] args)  
        {  
            string data = "Hello    World  nice to be   here   \t\t";  
            Console.WriteLine($"{data.Replace("\t", "").RemoveExtraSpaces()}...");  
            Console.ReadLine();  
        }  
    }  
  
    public static class Extensions  
    {  
        public static string RemoveExtraSpaces(this string sender)  
        {  
            const RegexOptions options = RegexOptions.None;  
            var regex = new Regex("[ ]{2,}", options);  
            return regex.Replace(sender, " ").Trim();  
        }  
    }  
}  

Answer 2

Is there any differences between ' ' and \t?

Yes, they are two different characters.

Perhaps the easiest way to make your method work is to
replace all tabs with spaces before parsing the string.

static string RemoveWhiteSpaceInString(string pattern)  
{  
    string tempstr = pattern.Replace('\t', ' ');  
  
    int count = 0;  
    StringBuilder SB = new StringBuilder();  
    bool PrevChar = false;  
    foreach (char item in tempstr)  
        {  
        bool NextChar = item == ' ';  
        if (!NextChar || !PrevChar)  
        {  
            SB.Append(item);  
            PrevChar = NextChar;  
        }  
    }  
    return SB.ToString();  
}  
  
static void Main(string[] args)                                    
{                                                                  
    string str = "HasSpacesAfter    after";                        
    string strTAB = "HasTabsAfter\t\tafter";                       
    string strTABandSpaces = "HasWhitespacesAfter  \t\t  after";   
                                                                   
                                                                   
    Console.WriteLine(str);                                        
    Console.WriteLine(strTAB);                                     
    Console.WriteLine(strTABandSpaces);                            
                                                                   
    Console.WriteLine(RemoveWhiteSpaceInString(str));              
    Console.WriteLine(RemoveWhiteSpaceInString(strTAB));           
    Console.WriteLine(RemoveWhiteSpaceInString(strTABandSpaces));  
}                                                                  
  
Output:  
  
HasSpacesAfter    after                                                                                   
HasTabsAfter            after            
HasWhitespacesAfter               after  
HasSpacesAfter after                     
HasTabsAfter after                       
HasWhitespacesAfter after                
  
  

• Wayne

Answer 3

s=" Bob Loves Alice "

string[] allwords = s.Split(new char[] { ' ' }, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries);