vb.net: can you split a string by a string

Try this:

string[] myDelims = new string[] { "<beginning of record>" };
split = temp_string.Split(myDelims,StringSplitOptions.None);

Running this through a code converter results in this:

Dim myDelims As String() = New String() { "<beginning of record>" }
split = temp_string.Split(myDelims, StringSplitOptions.None)

You may also need to escape the chevrons, like this:

"\< beginning of record \>"