CODEWITHSUNDEEP
regexc#-4.0
Jakes
Jakes

Reputation: 23

Search for text with Regex

I need a regular expression to get the text out from between [ and ] within a sentence.

Example Text: 

Hello World - Test[**This is my string**]. Good bye World.

Desired Result:

**This is my String**

The regex that I have come up with is Test\\[[a-zA-Z].+\\], but this returns the entire **Test[This is my string]**

Upvotes: 2

Views: 73

Answers (3)

MNos
MNos

Reputation: 520

Match m = Regex.Match(@"Hello World - Test[This is my string]. Good bye World.", 
            @"Test\[([a-zA-Z].+)\]");
Console.WriteLine(m.Groups[1].Value);

Upvotes: 2

davidchambers
davidchambers

Reputation: 24806

You could use a capturing group to access to the text of interest:

\[([^]]+)\]

A quick proof of concept using JavaScript:

var text = 'Hello World - Test[This is my string]. Good bye World.'
var match = /\[([^\]]+)\]/.exec(text)
if (match) {
  console.log(match[1]) // "This is my string"
}

If the regular expression engine you are using supports both lookahead and lookbehind, Tim's solution is more appropriate.

Upvotes: 2

Tim Pietzcker
Tim Pietzcker

Reputation: 336218

(?<=Test\[)[^\[\]]*(?=\])

should do what you want.

(?<=Test\[) # Assert that "Test[" can be matched before the current position
[^\[\]]*    # Match any number of characters except brackets
(?=\])      # Assert that "]" can be matched after the current position

Read up on lookaround assertions.

Upvotes: 1

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