Edit

Share via

How to: Combine and Compare String Collections (LINQ) (Visual Basic)

  • Article

This example shows how to merge files that contain lines of text and then sort the results. Specifically, it shows how to perform a simple concatenation, a union, and an intersection on the two sets of text lines.

Set up the project and the text 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 ConcatenateStrings
    Shared Sub Main()

        ' Create the IEnumerable data sources.
        Dim fileA As String() = System.IO.File.ReadAllLines("../../../names1.txt")
        Dim fileB As String() = System.IO.File.ReadAllLines("../../../names2.txt")

        ' Simple concatenation and sort.
        Dim concatQuery = fileA.Concat(fileB).OrderBy(Function(name) name)

        ' Pass the query variable to another function for execution
        OutputQueryResults(concatQuery, "Simple concatenation and sort. Duplicates are preserved:")

        ' New query. Concatenate files and remove duplicates
        Dim uniqueNamesQuery = fileA.Union(fileB).OrderBy(Function(name) name)
        OutputQueryResults(uniqueNamesQuery, "Union removes duplicate names:")

        ' New query. Find the names that occur in both files.
        Dim commonNamesQuery = fileA.Intersect(fileB)
        OutputQueryResults(commonNamesQuery, "Merge based on intersect: ")

        ' New query in three steps for better readability
        ' First filter each list separately

        Dim nameToSearch As String = "Garcia"
        Dim mergeQueryA As IEnumerable(Of String) = From name In fileA
                          Let n = name.Split(New Char() {","})
                          Where n(0) = nameToSearch
                          Select name

        Dim mergeQueryB = From name In fileB
                          Let n = name.Split(New Char() {","})
                          Where n(0) = nameToSearch
                          Select name

        ' Create a new query to concatenate and sort results. Duplicates are removed in Union.
        ' Note that none of the queries actually executed until the call to OutputQueryResults.
        Dim mergeSortQuery = mergeQueryA.Union(mergeQueryB).OrderBy(Function(str) str)

        ' Now execute mergeSortQuery
        OutputQueryResults(mergeSortQuery, "Concat based on partial name match """ & nameToSearch & """ from each list:")

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

    End Sub

    Shared Sub OutputQueryResults(ByVal query As IEnumerable(Of String), ByVal message As String)

        Console.WriteLine(System.Environment.NewLine & message)
        For Each item As String In query
            Console.WriteLine(item)
        Next
        Console.WriteLine(query.Count & " total names in list")

    End Sub
End Class
' Output:

' Simple concatenation and sort. Duplicates are preserved:
' Aw, Kam Foo
' Bankov, Peter
' Bankov, Peter
' Beebe, Ann
' Beebe, Ann
' El Yassir, Mehdi
' Garcia, Debra
' Garcia, Hugo
' Garcia, Hugo
' Giakoumakis, Leo
' Gilchrist, Beth
' Guy, Wey Yuan
' Holm, Michael
' Holm, Michael
' Liu, Jinghao
' McLin, Nkenge
' Myrcha, Jacek
' Noriega, Fabricio
' Potra, Cristina
' Toyoshima, Tim
' 20 total names in list

' Union removes duplicate names:
' Aw, Kam Foo
' Bankov, Peter
' Beebe, Ann
' El Yassir, Mehdi
' Garcia, Debra
' Garcia, Hugo
' Giakoumakis, Leo
' Gilchrist, Beth
' Guy, Wey Yuan
' Holm, Michael
' Liu, Jinghao
' McLin, Nkenge
' Myrcha, Jacek
' Noriega, Fabricio
' Potra, Cristina
' Toyoshima, Tim
' 16 total names in list

' Merge based on intersect:
' Bankov, Peter
' Holm, Michael
' Garcia, Hugo
' Beebe, Ann
' 4 total names in list

' Concat based on partial name match "Garcia" from each list:
' Garcia, Debra
' Garcia, Hugo
' 2 total names in list

Compile the code

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

See also