compactframework, Working with sorted fixed length text files ?

1. How to get the fixed length of a fixed length string

Private Structure TNavRec

<VBFixedString(100),System.Runtime.InteropServices.MarshalAs(System.Runtime.
InteropServices.UnmanagedType.ByValTStr,SizeConst:=100)> Public strItemName
As String

<VBFixedString(4),System.Runtime.InteropServices.MarshalAs(System.Runtime.In
teropServices.UnmanagedType.ByValTStr,SizeConst:=4)> Public strItemID As
String

<VBFixedString(2),System.Runtime.InteropServices.MarshalAs(System.Runtime.In
teropServices.UnmanagedType.ByValTStr,SizeConst:=2)> Public EndOfLine As
String

End Structure

--snip--
Dim ludtNavRec As TNavRec
'accept more than a record will hold
cboName.Text = VB.Left(Value, Len(ludtNavRec.strItemName))

------
In my program
 Len(ludtNavRec.strItemName)
 returns 0 (probably because I haven't  stored anything into it yet).
Probably returning the length of the variable string not  the capacity.

I could, of course, store the max length (100) in a const and use that but
 I wonder if there is a better way?

Thanks

2. ReportViewer with fixed length text file - Asp.Net

3. Create fixed length text file

I have to create a fixed length text file and was hoping 
someone could point me to an example or resources that 
could help explain how it is done in C#.

Thanks.

4. importing a fixed field length formatted text file into a dataset - VB.Net

5. Reading Fixed Length ASCII/Text File

I have the following code to read the following file (very simple). 
I'm trying to extract only the date, but with this code I'm extracting
the entire record.  What am I doing wrong?  What am I missing?

Ken

c:\temp\namedate.txt = Ken Hall08/27/56 (One record)

Module Module1
  
    Public Structure Record1
        <VBFixedString(8)> Public name As String
        <VBFixedString(8)> Public date1 As String
    End Structure


    Sub Main()
        Try
            Dim line As String
            Dim Record2 As New Record1

            ' Create an instance of StreamReader to read from a file.
            Dim sr As System.IO.StreamReader = New
System.IO.StreamReader("c:\temp\namedate.txt")
            ' Read and display the lines from the file until the end 
            ' of the file is reached.
            Do
                line = sr.ReadLine()
                Record2.date1 = line
                Console.WriteLine(Record2.date1)
            Loop Until line Is Nothing
            sr.Close()
        Catch E As Exception
            ' Let the user know what went wrong.
            Console.WriteLine("The file could not be read:")
            Console.WriteLine(E.Message)
        End Try


    End Sub

End Module

6. how to split a string using ,fixed character length, variable text delimmiter - CSharp/C#

7. Transform fixed length text to xml

can i transform fixed length text to xml using XSL
do i have to first load the text to xml and do the transformation? is there any other way to do it?

8. problem while working with fixed length strings in Vb.Net - Microsoft .NET Framework