Split. A string contains many values. It has names of animals separated by commas. We must split this string. Splitting is not exciting, but it is useful.
With Split, a method on the String type in .NET, we receive a String array. And with the helpful Seq.toList we can convert this into an F# list for further use.
Simple example. We introduce a string with three fields separated by commas. We call the Split method with a single comma char—this is expanded to a char array.
Return We receive a string array from Split containing 3 elements. We use a for-in loop to display them to the screen.
let animals = "bear,frog,eagle"// Split on the comma.// ... This is creating a single-element character array for us.
let result = animals.Split ','
// Loop over and display strings.
for value in result do
printfn "%A" value"bear""frog""eagle"
Seq.toList. This example adds some complexity. We introduce a splitLine function. This receives a string and calls Split on it. Then it returns the result of Seq.toList.
// Create a splitLine function.// ... It uses Seq.toList on the result of line.Split.// So we can access a list.
let splitLine = (fun (line : string) -> Seq.toList (line.Split ','))
// Split this line into a list.
let plants = "turnip,carrot,lettuce"
let result = splitLine plants
// Display our results in a for-loop.
for value in result do
printfn "%A" value"turnip""carrot""lettuce"
String separator. With Split() we can separate a string based on a substring delimiter. We create a string array containing all delimiters and pass it to Split.
Info RemoveEmptyEntries is part of the System namespace. With it, empty array elements are removed before Split returns.
Result The items string has an empty string between 2 delimiters. But this is not part of the result.
open System
let items = "keyboard; mouse; ; monitor"// Call split with a string array as the first argument.// ... This splits on a two-char sequence.// Also remove empty array elements.
let result = items.Split([|"; "|], StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries)
// Print all elements in the array with Seq.iter.
Seq.iter (fun x -> printfn "%A" x) result"keyboard""mouse""monitor"
Multiple delimiters. Here we Split on 2 different character delimiters. We provide a char array to Split() as the first argument. We use a for-loop to print results.
let clothes = "pants.shoes:socks"// Split on two different characters.
let result = clothes.Split([|'.'; ':'|])
// Print results with for-loop.
for r in result do
printfn "%s" rpants
shoes
socks
Summary. F# adds no special splitting methods. But it allows easy access to the powerful .NET Framework string split method. With some conversion, we can split into a list.
Dot Net Perls is a collection of tested code examples. Pages are continually updated to stay current, with code correctness a top priority.
Sam Allen is passionate about computer languages. In the past, his work has been recommended by Apple and Microsoft and he has studied computers at a selective university in the United States.