More String Methods

Before we do more elaborate things with strings, some more string methods will be helpful. Be sure you are familiar with the earlier discussion of strings in Basic String Operations.

Play with the new string methods in csharp!

This variation of IndexOf has a second parameter:

int IndexOf(string target, int start)

Returns the index of the beginning of the first occurrence of the string target in this string object, starting at index start or after. Returns -1 if target is not found. Example:

csharp> string state = "Mississippi";
csharp> print("01234567890\n"+state) // to see indices
01234567890
Mississippi
csharp> state.IndexOf("is", 0); // same as state.IndexOf("is");
1
csharp> state.IndexOf("is", 2);
4
csharp> state.IndexOf("is", 5);
-1
csharp> state.IndexOf("i", 5);
7

string Trim()

Returns a string formed from this string object, but with leading and trailing whitespace removed. Example:

csharp> string s = "\n  123    ";
csharp> "#" + s + "#";
#
  123   #
csharp> "#" + s.Trim() + "#";
#123#

string Replace(string target, string replacement)

Returns a string formed from this string by replacing all occurrences of the substring target by replacement. Example:

csharp> string s = "This is it!";
csharp> s.Replace(" ", "/");
"This/is/it!"
csharp> s.Replace("is", "at");
"That at it!"
csharp> "oooooh".Replace("oo", "ah");
"ahahoh"

bool StartsWith(string prefix)

Returns true if this string object starts with string prefix, and false otherwise. Example:

csharp> "-123".StartsWith("-");
true
csharp> "downstairs".StartsWith("down");
true
csharp> "1 - 2 - 3".StartsWith("-");
false

bool EndsWith(string suffix)

Returns true if this string object ends with string suffix, and false otherwise. Example:

csharp> "-123".EndsWith("-");
false
csharp> "downstairs".EndsWith("airs");
true
csharp> "downstairs".EndsWith("air");
false

Count Repetitions in a String Exercise

Write a program test_count_rep.cs, with a Main testing method, that tests a function with the following heading:

// Return the number of separate repetitions of target in s.
static int CountRep(string s, string target)

For example here is what CountRep( "Mississippi", target) would return with various values for target:

"i": 4
"is": 2
"sss": 0

Assume each repetition is completely separate, so CountRep("Wheee!", "ee") returns 1. The last two e’s do not count, since the middle e is already used in the match of the first two e’s.

Safer PromptInt and PromptDouble Exercise

Save the example safe_number_input_stub/safe_number_input.cs in a project of your own.

The idea is to write safe versions of the utility functions PromptInt and PromptDouble (which can then be used in further places like PromptIntInRange).

Be sure you are familiar with Safe Whole Number Input Exercise, and the development of its InputWhole function.

A legal whole number string consists entirely of digits. We have already written example IsDigits to identify a string for a whole number.

The improvements to PromptInt and PromptDouble are very similar and straightforward if you have developed the two main Boolean support functions, IsIntString and IsDecimalString respectively.

A complicating issue with integer and decimal strings is that they may include parts other than digits. An integer may start with a minus sign. A decimal number can also contain a decimal point in an appropriate place. The suggestion is to confirm that these other characters appear in legal places, remove them, and see that what is left is digits. The recently introduced string methods should help….

Using the ideas above, develop the functions in order and test after each one: write IsIntString, revise PromptInt, write IsDecimalString, and revise PromptDouble.

Be sure to test carefully. Not only confirm that all appropriate strings return true: Also be sure to test that you return false" for all sorts of bad strings.

There is still one issue with IsIntString not considered yet: see the next exercise for the final improvement.

Hopefully you learned something from writing the earlier PromptWhole. Probably it is not worth keeping in our utility library any longer, since we have the more general and safe PromptInt, and we can restrict to many ranges with PromptIntInRange.

We will arrange for these functions to be a library class later. For now just develop and test them in this one class.

Safest PromptInt Exercise

With the suggestions so far the in the previous exercise, IsIntString will catch a strange stray character, and be sure that the string for an integer is entered, but an int is not an arbitrary integer: it has limited range, between int.MinValue = -2147483648 and int.MaxValue = 2147483647.

Revise the IsIntString function of the previous exercise so that it checks that the result is in range, too, allowing the PromptInt function to be totally reliable.

There is a problem: your current version of IsIntString is likely to accept a string like "9876543210", and you cannot convert it to an int to do the comparison to see that it is in fact too large for an int! Catch 22?

There is an alternate approach involving comparing strings, not numbers.

There is a string instance method:

public int CompareTo(string t)

It does roughly lexicographical string comparisons, so

s.CompareTo(t) <= 0

is true when s “comes before” t or is equal to t. This works with alphabetizing letter strings: “at” comes before “ate” which comes before “attention” which comes before “eat”. It also works with digit strings of the same length to give the same relationship as the corresponding numbers:

"123456890".CompareTo("2147483647") <= 0

is true, and

"9876543210".CompareTo("2147483647") <= 0

is false.

This idea can be leveraged into a completely reliable version of IsIntString. (With this approach you could also create an IsLongString very similarly, but we skip it since it teaches you nothing new.)

The idea of a CompareTo method is much more general and is used much later in Rationals Revisited.