How to sort a string, but keep spaces in the same place

Question

Hello,

I am trying to sort a string that has spaces in it. For example the string: "Hello World", would be "dehll loorw". Currently when I sort the string the space is placed at the end of the string, but I need it to stay in the same place.

Thanks.

Answer 1

Hi @JasonDaurison ,
You need to record the index of each space and insert them after sorting.
Here's an example you can refer to.

    Private Function SortStringToLower(ByVal input As String) As String  
        Dim indexLst As List(Of Integer) = New List(Of Integer)  
        Dim pos As Integer = input.IndexOf(" "c)  
        While pos >= 0  
            indexLst.Add(pos)  
            pos = input.IndexOf(" "c, pos + 1)  
        End While  
        Dim characters As Char() = input.ToLower.Replace(" ", "").ToArray()  
        Array.Sort(characters)  
        Dim builder As StringBuilder = New StringBuilder(New String(characters))  
        For Each index In indexLst  
            builder.Insert(index, " "c)  
        Next  
        Return builder.ToString  
    End Function  
  
    Sub Main()  
        Dim str As String = "H ello Worl d"  
        Dim result As String = SortStringToLower(str)  
        Console.WriteLine(result)  
        Console.ReadLine()  
    End Sub  

Result:

Best Regards,
Xingyu Zhao
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