c# search string in txt file

Solution 1:

If your pair of lines will only appear once in your file, you could use

File.ReadLines(pathToTextFile)
    .SkipWhile(line => !line.Contains("CustomerEN"))
    .Skip(1) // optional
    .TakeWhile(line => !line.Contains("CustomerCh"));

If you could have multiple occurrences in one file, you're probably better off using a regular foreach loop - reading lines, keeping track of whether you're currently inside or outside a customer etc:

List<List<string>> groups = new List<List<string>>();
List<string> current = null;
foreach (var line in File.ReadAllLines(pathToFile))
{
    if (line.Contains("CustomerEN") && current == null)
        current = new List<string>();
    else if (line.Contains("CustomerCh") && current != null)
    {
        groups.Add(current);
        current = null;
    }
    if (current != null)
        current.Add(line);
}

Solution 2:

You have to use while since foreach does not know about index. Below is an example code.

int counter = 0;
string line;

Console.Write("Input your search text: ");
var text = Console.ReadLine();

System.IO.StreamReader file =
    new System.IO.StreamReader("SampleInput1.txt");

while ((line = file.ReadLine()) != null)
{
    if (line.Contains(text))
    {
        break;
    }

    counter++;
}

Console.WriteLine("Line number: {0}", counter);

file.Close();

Console.ReadLine();

Solution 3:

With LINQ, you could use the SkipWhile / TakeWhile methods, like this:

var importantLines = 
    File.ReadLines(pathToTextFile)
    .SkipWhile(line => !line.Contains("CustomerEN"))
    .TakeWhile(line => !line.Contains("CustomerCh"));

Solution 4:

If you whant only one first string, you can use simple for-loop.

var lines = File.ReadAllLines(pathToTextFile);

var firstFound = false;
for(int index = 0; index < lines.Count; index++)
{
   if(!firstFound && lines[index].Contains("CustomerEN"))
   {
      firstFound = true;
   }
   if(firstFound && lines[index].Contains("CustomerCh"))
   {
      //do, what you want, and exit the loop
      // return lines[index];
   }
}