Cannot convert string to char

Unity Engine
1

I’ve had a look round but nothing i see seems to answer. Here’s my code to start with;

    void readDictionary()
    {
        string[] data = wordData.text.Split(new string("," , "\n"), StringSplitOptions.None);

        int tableSize = data.Length / 3 - 1;
        MyWordList.words = new Words[tableSize];

        for(int i = 0; i < tableSize; i++)
        {
            MyWordList.words[i] = new Words();
            MyWordList.words[i].word = data[3 * (i + 1)];
            MyWordList.words[i].assignment = data[3 * (i + 1) + 2];
            MyWordList.words[i].meaning = data[3 * (i + 1) + 3];
        }
    }

So the idea is that I’m importing a spreadsheet which is three columns wide. This is meant to be like a dictionary of sorts (So there’s the word itself, a letter assignment for when I call the word into the game and a short definition which comes into player later) but for the life of me I can’t figure this out.
The three are stored as strings but when I use the Split code above, it comes back saying ‘cannont convert string to char’
I know I need a char or something in the Split code but apparently it won’t take two char’s.

Anything anyone can suggest to help would be appreciated.

For the curious I was following this tutorial;

8450084--1120883--Screenshot 2022-09-19 at 15.56.28.png
8450084--1120883--Screenshot 2022-09-19 at 15.56.28.png1448×458 79 KB

2

That function takes a single character (char data type), but if you use “double quotes” (even around a single letter) it sends a string. Use single quotes ‘,’ instead.

3

How do I get it to recognise I want it to split via ‘new line’? It won’t take /n.

4

The escape character in C# strings/chars isn’t /, it is .

char c = '\n';
5

To be clear I’ve tried

string[] data = wordData.text.Split(',', '\n');

But that doesn’t work as it does this;

8450393--1120949--upload_2022-9-19_18-10-12.png
8450393--1120949--upload_2022-9-19_18-10-12.png1244×648 63.1 KB

I’m trying to get it so the Word is one word, the Assignment is one letter and the meaning is a string of X length

6

What do you mean?

What is your input data? Where does ‘wordData’ come from and how is it formatted?

7

I’ll keep it simple and show the whole code.
I’m puling wordData from a CSV file where I have a list of words stored. it’s a spreadsheet with three columns.

using UnityEngine;
using System;
using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.Generic;

public class Dictionary : MonoBehaviour
{
    public TextAsset wordData;

    [System.Serializable]

    public class Words
    {
        public string word;
        public string assignment;
        public string meaning;
    }

    [System.Serializable]

    public class WordList
    {
        public Words[] words;
    }

    public WordList MyWordList = new WordList();

    // Use this for initialization
    void Start()
    {
        readDictionary();
    }
    void readDictionary()
    {
        string[] data = wordData.text.Split;

        int tableSize = data.Length / 3 - 1;
        MyWordList.words = new Words[tableSize];

        for(int i = 0; i < tableSize; i++)
        {
            MyWordList.words[i] = new Words();
            MyWordList.words[i].word = data[3 * (i + 1)];
            MyWordList.words[i].assignment = data[3 * (i + 1) + 2];
            MyWordList.words[i].meaning = data[3 * (i + 1) + 3];
        }
    }

}
8

Ok so I figured it out
Broke it down a bit and realised I could just do it this way;

string[] delimiterChars =
        {
            "," ,
            "\r\n"
        };

        string[] data = wordData.text.Split(delimiterChars, StringSplitOptions.None);

Hopefully this will help you too.

9

The method you’re using is a little bit overcomplicated to be honest. I would just use a StringReader to read the text line by line, then process each line individually by splitting it, something like this:

using (var reader = new StringReader(wordData.text))
{
  string line = null;

  while ((line = reader.ReadLine()) != null) // Will read the text line by line
  {
    var splittedLine = line.Split(' ');
    var words = new Words { word = splittedLine[0], assignment = splittedLine[1], meaning = splittedLine[2] };
    // do whatever you want with your "words" class...
  }
 }
2 Likes
10

Beside all the noise about char and string conversion, you do realise that this does not make much sense, right?

            MyWordList.words[i].word = data[3 * (i + 1)];
            MyWordList.words[i].assignment = data[3 * (i + 1) + 2];
            MyWordList.words[i].meaning = data[3 * (i + 1) + 3];

You said that you have 3 columns and you do multiply by 3. However you grab the “word” from offset 0, the “assignment” from offset 2 and the “meaning” from offset 3 which would imply a 4 column layout where the second column is ignored all the time. If you actually have 3 columns, you would always grab the wrong assignment and meaning. Your meaning is always the “word” of the next line. 3 * (i+1)+3 is the same as 3*(i+2).

Like Nad_B said, you should properly parse the file to begin with. If any line does not have exactly 3 columns you would get completely out of sync. So if one line is missing the meaning or if there’s another 4th column, everything would break down. That’s not really a robust way of parsing one of the simplest data formats out there :slight_smile:

11

Shortly after changing my code like in my last post, I realised the same thing so I changed it and it works the way I want to. I didn’t mention it in my reply because I realised the offset was wrong after I hit reply. Didn’t think to mention it.
Like I said I was following a tutorial and the person explaining it was using the offset to avoid taking the top row which is the header. His worked in the video which is why I was confused as to why mine didn’t work.