Split and join C# string

You can use string.Split and string.Join:

string theString = "Some Very Large String Here";
var array = theString.Split(' ');
string firstElem = array.First();
string restOfArray = string.Join(" ", array.Skip(1));

If you know you always only want to split off the first element, you can use:

var array = theString.Split(' ', 2);

This makes it so you don't have to join:

string restOfArray = array[1];

Well, here is my "answer". It uses the fact that String.Split can be told hold many items it should split to (which I found lacking in the other answers):

string theString = "Some Very Large String Here";
var array = theString.Split(new [] { ' ' }, 2); // return at most 2 parts
// note: be sure to check it's not an empty array
string firstElem = array[0];
// note: be sure to check length first
string restOfArray = array[1];

This is very similar to the Substring method, just by a different means.


You can split and join the string, but why not use substrings? Then you only end up with one split instead of splitting the string into 5 parts and re-joining it. The end result is the same, but the substring is probably a bit faster.

string lcStart = "Some Very Large String Here";
int lnSpace = lcStart.IndexOf(' ');

if (lnSpace > -1)
{
    string lcFirst = lcStart.Substring(0, lnSpace);
    string lcRest = lcStart.Substring(lnSpace + 1);
}

Tags:

C#

Arrays

String