vb.net how to split text file

Question

I have a file with the comma-separated lines as below:

PS23456789,08/2023,2011,LAM CHIUE MONG JP
sdad,08/2023,2011,LAM CHIUE MONG JP
xvczxcssf,08/2023,2011,LAM CHIUE MONG JP
42432,08/2023,2011,LAM CHIUE MONG JP
fdsafs,08/2023,2011,LAM CHIUE MONG JP

I want to convert this data to fixed-length values and no commas, like this:

PS23456789   08/2023   2011   LAM CHIUE MONG JP
sdad         08/2023   2011   LAM CHIUE MONG JP
xvczxcssf    08/2023   2011   LAM CHIUE MONG JP
42432        08/2023   2011   LAM CHIUE MONG JP
fdsafs       08/2023   2011   LAM CHIUE MONG JP

Unfortunately, I can only get the first row to look right. The others do not work. Here is what it looks like:

PS23456789   08/2023   2011   LAM CHIUE MONG JP
sdad08/2023   2011   LAM CHIUE MONG JP
xvczxcssf08/2023   2011   LAM CHIUE MONG JP
4243208/2023   2011   LAM CHIUE MONG JP
fdsafs08/2023   2011   LAM CHIUE MONG JP

This is my code:

Dim splitFile = File.ReadAllText(Result).Split(",")
For count = 0 To splitFile.Length - 1
    While (splitFile(count).Length < 20)
        splitFile(count) = splitFile(count) + " "
    End While
    totalFile += splitFile(count)
Next
My.Computer.FileSystem.WriteAllText("C:test.txt", totalFile, False)

How can I fix this?

Answer 1

I think that's because you are reading all the lines as a whole. The end of each line should be a \n symbol, thus the last string of the first line cannot be separated with the first string of the second line. The concatenated string is longer than the length you have defined (i.e. 20), therefore no space is added. You should read the file line by line and process each line separately.

BTW, to add trailing spaces to get fixed length strings, you may want to try String.Format which performs much better. Check ref here. Example: String.Format({0:-20}, splitFile(count))