How to append several lines when iterating through List?

Question

I'd appreciate if someone could advise on the following.

I read the file containing the below text and writing each line into the List<string>:

CODE/1
NAME/some_name1
SHORT_NAME/short_name1   
CODE/2
NAME/document is a piece of paper 
containing information often 
used as proof of something
SHORT_NAME/document is a piece 

Now I'm parsing the list to get CODE, NAME and SHORT_NAME separately. The problem is that some lines containing NAME have one sencence which is broken into several lines due to its long length. I want to append these lines into one sentence, the output should be:

...
NAME/document is a piece of paper containing information often used as proof of something
...

My code appends only one next line:

List<string> lines = File.ReadLines(path).ToList();
List<string> full_lines = new List<string>();

foreach (string line in lines)
         {               
            if (line.StartsWith("NAME"))
            {

                name_index = lines.IndexOf(line);
                string new_line = "";
                if (!lines.ElementAt(name_index + 1).StartsWith("SHORT_NAME")) //checking if   
                //the next line does not start with SHORT_NAME (then it is continuation of NAME)
                {                       
                    new_line = line + " " + lines.ElementAt(name_index + 1);//appending the next
                                                                            //line
                    full_lines.Add(new_line); //adding into new list
                }                   
                else
                {                        
                    full_lines.Add(line);
                }
            }
          }

So the output is:

 ...
NAME/document is a piece of paper
...

So, how can I append all lines?

Thank you

Answer 1

change

 if (!lines.ElementAt(name_index + 1).StartsWith("SHORT_NAME")) //checking if   
                //the next line does not start with SHORT_NAME (then it is continuation of NAME)
                {                       
                    new_line = line + " " + lines.ElementAt(name_index + 1);//appending the next
                                                                            //line
                    full_lines.Add(new_line); //adding into new list
                }                   
                else
                {                        
                    full_lines.Add(line);
                }

to

     new_line = line;
     name_index++;
     while (!lines.ElementAt(name_index).StartsWith("SHORT_NAME"))                       
     {                       
     new_line = new_line + " " + lines.ElementAt(name_index);//appending the next line
     name_index++;
     }  

     full_lines.Add(new_line);

Answer 2

When you're reading the file, read each line separately, instead of all them together. Then don't create a new line unless it starts with a key word or if the '/' is unique unless the line contains a '/'. Something like this might help:

List<string> full_lines = new List<string>();
System.IO.StreamReader sr = new System.IO.StreamReader(path);
string line = "";
while(!sr.EndOfStream)
{
    line = sr.ReadLine();
    if(!line.Contains("/"))
    {
        full_lines[full_lines.Count - 1] += line;
    }
    else
        full_lines.Add(line);
}