Nick, the columns should be separated by a means of a character, like a
tab. To get the strings and do the calculations you could try something
like the following

String[] tokens = line.Split("\t");
int[] numbers = new int[tokens.Length];

for (int i=0;i<numbers.Length;i++) {
try {
   numbers[i] = Convert.ToInteger(tokens[i]);
} catch (Exception ex) {
   numbers[i] = -1; //this in case a number is malformed
}
}

and you will have your numbers in number array.

Regards,
Tasos

Nick,

Does the line have delimiters in it?  Are the columns you want to use for the
calculations separated by commas or tabs or something like that?

If the line you are reading you can use the String.Split method to do exactly
what you are wanting to do.

Here is an example:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;

namespace ConsoleApplication1
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            string line = "10,21,10,17";

            string[] cols = line.Split(new char[] { ',' });

            int sum =
                Convert.ToInt32(cols[0]) +
                Convert.ToInt32(cols[1]) +
                Convert.ToInt32(cols[2]) +
                Convert.ToInt32(cols[3]);

            Console.Write("the sum is {0}", sum);
            Console.ReadLine();
        }
    }
}
Good luck with your project,

Otis Mukinfus
http://www.arltex.com
http://www.tomchilders.com