CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#.netregexsubstring
NIklas Persson
NIklas Persson

Reputation: 1

Matching a substring of any length and characters using RegEx

I would like to be able to match and then extract all substrings in the following string using regex in c#:

"2012-05-15 00:49:02 192.168.100.10 POST /Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync/default.eas User=nikced&DeviceId=ApplDNWGRKZQDTC0&DeviceType=iPhone&Cmd=Ping&Log=V121_Sst8_LdapC0_LdapL0_RpcC31_RpcL50_Hb3540_Erq1_Pk1728465481_S2_ 443 redcloud\nikced 94.234.170.42 Apple-iPhone4C1/902.179 200 0 64 3140491"

Since it's a logfile it the regex should be able to handle any line that is of a similar type.

In this case, the preferred output to a collection should be:

2012-05-15
00:49:02
192.168.100.10
/Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync/default.eas
User=nikced&DeviceId=ApplDNWGRKZQDTC0&DeviceType=iPhone&Cmd=Ping&Log=V121_Sst8_LdapC0_LdapL0_RpcC31_RpcL50_Hb3540_Erq1_Pk1728465481_S2_
443
redcloud\nikced
94.234.170.42
Apple-iPhone4C1/902.179
200
0
64
3140491

Appreciate any answer using C#, .net and Regex to extract the above substrings into a collection (MatchCollection preferred). All log lines follows the same format and pattern.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 414

Answers (5)

SPFiredrake
SPFiredrake

Reputation: 3892

Really, you just need to break this down into the parts.

First, the date. Will it always be in YYYY-MM-DD format? Could it be possible that it will be different based on region/culture settings?

(?<LogDate>dddd-dd-dd)

Next, you have the time. Same thing:

(?<LogTime>dd:dd:dd)

Next, I'm assuming this is the web method that was actually called? Not entirely sure, since you haven't really explained how the data is laid out. However, I'm assuming it's either going to be either POST or GET, so that's what we're going to do next...

(?<LogMethod>POST|GET)

Just do this for every part of the log line you're interested in, and you'll be set. IE:

(?<LogDate>dddd-dd-dd) (?<LogTime>dd:dd:dd) (?<LogMethod>POST|GET)...

If you want to anchor to the start/end of the line, be sure to use ^ and $ respectively. When you get the Matches, you can get the values from each group by indexing the Groups property with the named group (such as match.Groups["LogMethod"].Value). Good luck!

Upvotes: 0

JotaBe
JotaBe

Reputation: 39045

You don't need to use a Regex. You can simply use String.Split Method, and specify space as separator:

  string [] substrings = line.Split(new Char [] {' '});

If you need to identify the kind of each part, then you should specify what you need to find, and a regex can be created for it.

Anyway, if you really want to use a Regex, do this:

  Regex re = new Regex (@"(?:(?<s>[^ ]+)(?: |$))*");

This will give you all the captures in the "s" group, when you call the Match method.

As the OP pointed out in a comment that the separator can be anything appart from a single space, then the possible separators should be included in the (?: |$) and the [^ ] parts of the expression. I.e. if space as well as tab are possible separators, replace that part with (?: |\t|$) and [^ \t]. If you need to accept more than one of those characters as separators, add a + after the () group:

  (?:(?<s>[^ \t]+)(?: |\t|$)+)*

Upvotes: 1

Borodin
Borodin

Reputation: 126742

The fastest and most obvious way is to use String.Split:

string[] substrings = result = line->Split( nullptr, StringSplitOptions::RemoveEmptyEntries );

But if you insist on a MatchCollection then this will do what you want

MatchCollection ^ substrings = Regex.Matches(line, "\\S+")

Upvotes: 0

ry8806
ry8806

Reputation: 2338

This will give you an array that you can iterate through to retrieve all of the "lines" which are separated by a space

string[] lines = log.Split(' ');

Upvotes: 1

Kevin Gosse
Kevin Gosse

Reputation: 39007

Incredibly complex regex incoming:

logFile.Split(' ');

Upvotes: 3

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