CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#regex
Chris
Chris

Reputation: 147

C# regex to extract groups from input

I want to extract anything between two colon's (inclusive of the colon's) in an arbitrary input using C#. Given 

String input = "a:one:b:two:c:three:d";

I want

{string[3]}
[0]: ":one:"
[1]: ":two:"
[2]: ":three:"

Using 

String[ ] inverse = Regex.Split( input, ":.*?:" );

I get the opposite of what I want...

{string[4]}
[0]: "a"
[1]: "b"
[2]: "c"
[3]: "d"

How can I inverse this or is there something more suitable than Regex.Split in this situation?

Upvotes: 3

Views: 212

Answers (3)

Matthew Hazzard
Matthew Hazzard

Reputation: 1214

How about :[^:]+: 1. Match a colon 2. Followed by any non colon character one or more times. 3. Followed by a colon.

To get the set of matches use MatchCollection matches = Regex.Matches(blah, ":[^:]+:"); instead of Regex.Split

Regex's are concise and powerfull but I find myself writting just as many comments as I would code when using them.

Upvotes: 1

Bernesto
Bernesto

Reputation: 1436

Try this regex:

^(\w*):|:\w:|:\w$

Upvotes: 0

Chris Eberle
Chris Eberle

Reputation: 48775

How about you just use a regular split (on ':'), extract every second element, and then append the colons back on? I think you're overcomplicating this.

Upvotes: 0

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