Edit

Share via

How to: Split a File Into Many Files by Using Groups (LINQ) (Visual Basic)

  • Article

This example shows one way to merge the contents of two files and then create a set of new files that organize the data in a new way.

To create the data files

  1. Copy these names into a text file that is named names1.txt and save it in your project folder:

    Bankov, Peter
Holm, Michael
Garcia, Hugo
Potra, Cristina
Noriega, Fabricio
Aw, Kam Foo
Beebe, Ann
Toyoshima, Tim
Guy, Wey Yuan
Garcia, Debra

  2. Copy these names into a text file that is named names2.txt and save it in your project folder: Note that the two files have some names in common.

    Liu, Jinghao
Bankov, Peter
Holm, Michael
Garcia, Hugo
Beebe, Ann
Gilchrist, Beth
Myrcha, Jacek
Giakoumakis, Leo
McLin, Nkenge
El Yassir, Mehdi

Example

Class SplitWithGroups

    Shared Sub Main()

        Dim fileA As String() = System.IO.File.ReadAllLines("../../../names1.txt")
        Dim fileB As String() = System.IO.File.ReadAllLines("../../../names2.txt")

        ' Concatenate and remove duplicate names based on
        Dim mergeQuery As IEnumerable(Of String) = fileA.Union(fileB)

        ' Group the names by the first letter in the last name
        Dim groupQuery = From name In mergeQuery
                     Let n = name.Split(New Char() {","})
                     Order By n(0)
                     Group By groupKey = n(0)(0)
                     Into groupName = Group

        ' Create a new file for each group that was created
        ' Note that nested foreach loops are required to access
        ' individual items with each group.
        For Each gGroup In groupQuery
            Dim fileName As String = "..'..'..'testFile_" & gGroup.groupKey & ".txt"
            Dim sw As New System.IO.StreamWriter(fileName)
            Console.WriteLine(gGroup.groupKey)
            For Each item In gGroup.groupName
                Console.WriteLine("   " & item.name)
                sw.WriteLine(item.name)
            Next
            sw.Close()
        Next

        ' Keep console window open in debug mode.
        Console.WriteLine("Files have been written. Press any key to exit.")
        Console.ReadKey()

    End Sub
End Class
' Console Output:
' A
'    Aw, Kam Foo
' B
'    Bankov, Peter
'    Beebe, Ann
' E
'    El Yassir, Mehdi
' G
'    Garcia, Hugo
'    Garcia, Debra
'    Giakoumakis, Leo
'    Gilchrist, Beth
'    Guy, Wey Yuan
' H
'    Holm, Michael
' L
'    Liu, Jinghao
' M
'    McLin, Nkenge
'    Myrcha, Jacek
' N
'    Noriega, Fabricio
' P
'    Potra, Cristina
' T
'    Toyoshima, Tim

The program writes a separate file for each group in the same folder as the data files.

Compile the code

Create a Visual Basic console application project, with an Imports statement for the System.Linq namespace.

See also