.net / random / utility
List of Country Names
Today I had to build yet-another-list of country names for a web site drop down form. I did some Google searching for about 10 minutes and didn't find anything that was free. I dunno, maybe I'm just blind... I did, however, find a list on Wikipedia. So, I decided I'd pull it down and parse it up. Here's the code:
static void Main(string[] args){ string fullpage; using (WebClient wc = new WebClient()) { byte[] pageBytes = wc.DownloadData( @"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_country_name_etymologies"); string encoding = wc.ResponseHeaders["Content-Encoding"]; fullpage = wc.Encoding.GetString(pageBytes); } MatchCollection countryMatches = Regex.Matches(fullpage, @"<p><b><a href="". ""\s*title="". "">(?<country>. )</a></b>:</p>", RegexOptions.Multiline); foreach (Match m in countryMatches) { Group g = m.Groups["country"]; Console.WriteLine(g.Value); } Console.WriteLine("done"); Console.ReadLine();}
As you can see it's dirt simple. Just a WebClient to download the page (holy crap it's big) and a simple Regex call. Presto! A list of countries I'll be dropping into a database so we can edit it later.
