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.NET Development
.NET Framework 3.5
StringInfo Class
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This page is specific to
Microsoft Visual Studio 2008/.NET Framework 3.5

Other versions are also available for the following:
.NET Framework Class Library
StringInfo Class

Provides functionality to split a string into text elements and to iterate through those text elements.

Namespace:  System.Globalization
Assembly:  mscorlib (in mscorlib.dll)
Visual Basic (Declaration)
<SerializableAttribute> _
<ComVisibleAttribute(True)> _
Public Class StringInfo
Visual Basic (Usage)
Dim instance As StringInfo
C#
[SerializableAttribute]
[ComVisibleAttribute(true)]
public class StringInfo
Visual C++
[SerializableAttribute]
[ComVisibleAttribute(true)]
public ref class StringInfo
JScript
public class StringInfo

The .NET Framework defines a text element as a unit of text that is displayed as a single character, that is, a grapheme. A text element can be a base character, a surrogate pair, or a combining character sequence. The Unicode Standard defines a surrogate pair as a coded character representation for a single abstract character that consists of a sequence of two code units, where the first unit of the pair is a high surrogate and the second is a low surrogate. The Unicode Standard defines a combining character sequence as a combination of a base character and one or more combining characters. A surrogate pair can represent a base character or a combining character.

For more information on surrogate pairs and combining character sequences, see The Unicode Standard at http://www.unicode.org.

This example shows how to use the GetTextElementEnumerator and ParseCombiningCharacters methods of the StringInfo class to manipulate a string that contains surrogate and combining characters.

C#
using System;
using System.Text;
using System.Globalization;

public sealed class App {
   static void Main() {
      // The string below contains combining characters.
      String s = "a\u0304\u0308bc\u0327";

      // Show each 'character' in the string.
      EnumTextElements(s);

      // Show the index in the string where each 'character' starts.
      EnumTextElementIndexes(s);
   }

   // Show how to enumerate each real character (honoring surrogates) in a string.
   static void EnumTextElements(String s) {
      // This StringBuilder holds the output results.
      StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();

      // Use the enumerator returned from GetTextElementEnumerator 
      // method to examine each real character.
      TextElementEnumerator charEnum = StringInfo.GetTextElementEnumerator(s);
      while (charEnum.MoveNext()) {
         sb.AppendFormat(
           "Character at index {0} is '{1}'{2}",
           charEnum.ElementIndex, charEnum.GetTextElement(),
           Environment.NewLine);
      }

      // Show the results.
      Console.WriteLine("Result of GetTextElementEnumerator:");
      Console.WriteLine(sb);
   }

   // Show how to discover the index of each real character (honoring surrogates) in a string.
   static void EnumTextElementIndexes(String s) {
      // This StringBuilder holds the output results.
      StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();

      // Use the ParseCombiningCharacters method to 
      // get the index of each real character in the string.
      Int32[] textElemIndex = StringInfo.ParseCombiningCharacters(s);

      // Iterate through each real character showing the character and the index where it was found.
      for (Int32 i = 0; i < textElemIndex.Length; i++) {
         sb.AppendFormat(
            "Character {0} starts at index {1}{2}",
            i, textElemIndex[i], Environment.NewLine);
      }

      // Show the results.
      Console.WriteLine("Result of ParseCombiningCharacters:");
      Console.WriteLine(sb);
   }
}

// This code produces the following output.
//
// Result of GetTextElementEnumerator:
// Character at index 0 is 'a-"'
// Character at index 3 is 'b'
// Character at index 4 is 'c,'
// 
// Result of ParseCombiningCharacters:
// Character 0 starts at index 0
// Character 1 starts at index 3
// Character 2 starts at index 4
Visual C++
using namespace System;
using namespace System::Text;
using namespace System::Globalization;


// Show how to enumerate each real character (honoring surrogates)
// in a string.

void EnumTextElements(String^ combiningChars)
{
    // This StringBuilder holds the output results.
    StringBuilder^ sb = gcnew StringBuilder();

    // Use the enumerator returned from GetTextElementEnumerator
    // method to examine each real character.
    TextElementEnumerator^ charEnum =
        StringInfo::GetTextElementEnumerator(combiningChars);
    while (charEnum->MoveNext())
    {
        sb->AppendFormat("Character at index {0} is '{1}'{2}", 
            charEnum->ElementIndex, charEnum->GetTextElement(), 
            Environment::NewLine);
    }

    // Show the results.
    Console::WriteLine("Result of GetTextElementEnumerator:");
    Console::WriteLine(sb);
}


// Show how to discover the index of each real character
// (honoring surrogates) in a string.

void EnumTextElementIndexes(String^ combiningChars)
{
    // This StringBuilder holds the output results.
    StringBuilder^ sb = gcnew StringBuilder();

    // Use the ParseCombiningCharacters method to
    // get the index of each real character in the string.
    array <int>^ textElemIndex =
        StringInfo::ParseCombiningCharacters(combiningChars);

    // Iterate through each real character showing the character
    // and the index where it was found.
    for (int i = 0; i < textElemIndex->Length; i++)
    {
        sb->AppendFormat("Character {0} starts at index {1}{2}",
            i, textElemIndex[i], Environment::NewLine);
    }

    // Show the results.
    Console::WriteLine("Result of ParseCombiningCharacters:");
    Console::WriteLine(sb);
}

int main()
{

    // The string below contains combining characters.
    String^ combiningChars = L"a\u0304\u0308bc\u0327";

    // Show each 'character' in the string.
    EnumTextElements(combiningChars);

    // Show the index in the string where each 'character' starts.
    EnumTextElementIndexes(combiningChars);

};

// This code produces the following output.
//
// Result of GetTextElementEnumerator:
// Character at index 0 is 'a-"'
// Character at index 3 is 'b'
// Character at index 4 is 'c,'
//
// Result of ParseCombiningCharacters:
// Character 0 starts at index 0
// Character 1 starts at index 3
// Character 2 starts at index 4
System..::.Object
  System.Globalization..::.StringInfo
Any public static (Shared in Visual Basic) members of this type are thread safe. Any instance members are not guaranteed to be thread safe.

Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP SP2, Windows XP Media Center Edition, Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, Windows XP Starter Edition, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2000 SP4, Windows Millennium Edition, Windows 98, Windows CE, Windows Mobile for Smartphone, Windows Mobile for Pocket PC, Xbox 360, Zune

The .NET Framework and .NET Compact Framework do not support all versions of every platform. For a list of the supported versions, see .NET Framework System Requirements.

.NET Framework

Supported in: 3.5, 3.0, 2.0, 1.1, 1.0

.NET Compact Framework

Supported in: 3.5, 2.0, 1.0

XNA Framework

Supported in: 3.0, 2.0, 1.0
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