Delphi: StringList Delimiter is always a space character even if Delimiter is set
delimiter, delphi, delphi-7, tstringlist
Solution
You should set `s1.StrictDelimiter := True` for spaces not to be considered delimiters, more info here.
Since you work in a version that does not support the above (as was clarified after the answer was submitted), you have two options:
- Find a character you know will not be used in the original text (e.g. underscore), convert all spaces to that character before splitting, and convert back after splitting. This is robosoft's suggestion.
- If you don't have inverted commas and spaces in the text, you can use Alexander's trick and wrap the text between delimiters in inverted command, so that `'hello hello^bye bye'` turns to `'"hello hello"^"bye bye"'`. If you do choose this path and it works for you, please accept Alexander's answer and not mine, he also provides the code to implement it.
Both workarounds not using `StrictDelimiter` have limitations: the first requires some unused character, and the second requires no inverted commas and spaces in the original text.
Maybe it's time to upgrade to a newer version of Delphi :)
Problem
I am having trouble with the delimiter in the TStringList Class. Take a look: ``` var s: string; sl: TStringList; begin sl := TStringList.Create; s := 'Users^foo bar^bar foo^foobar^barfoo'; sl.Delimiter := '^'; sl.DelimitedText := s; ShowMessage(sl[1]); end; ``` `sl[1]` SHOULD return `'foo bar'` `sl[1]` DOES return `'foo'` It seems that the delimiter is now `'^'` AND `' '` Any ideas?