Writing a regex command to split an array in c#

Question

Regex is one of those things I've wanted to be able to write myself and although I have a basic understand of how it works I've never found myself in the situation where I needed to use it where it doesn't exist already widely on the web (such as for validating email addresses).

A problem that I have is that I am receiving a string which is comma separated, however some of the string values contain commas also. For example I might receive:

$COMMAND=1,2,3,"string","another,string",4,5,6

Generally I will never receive anything like this, however the device sending me this string array allows for it to happen so I would like to be able to split the array accordingly if it ever were to occur.

So obviously just splitting it like so (where rawResponse has the $COMMAND= part removed:

string[] response = rawResponse.Split(',');

Is not good enough! I think regex is the correct tool for the job, could anyone help me write it?

Yes that's correct. It's not the intended use of the unit as I said, but it is allowed for some reason! — ingh.am
– ingh.am, Commented Jan 13, 2013 at 15:58

Sergey Berezovskiy · Accepted Answer · 2013-01-14 12:49:10Z

5

string rawResponse = @"1,2,3,""string"",""another,string"",4,5";
string pattern = @"[^,""]+|""([^""]*)""";
foreach(Match match in  Regex.Matches(rawResponse, pattern))
       // use match.Value

Results:

1
2
3
"string"
"another,string"
4
5

If you need response as array of strings you can use Linq:

var response = Regex.Matches(rawResponse, pattern).Cast<Match>()
                    .Select(m => m.Value).ToArray();

edited Jan 14, 2013 at 12:49

answered Jan 13, 2013 at 15:57

Sergey Berezovskiy

237k44 gold badges441 silver badges468 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

7 Comments

ingh.am Over a year ago

Excellent answer! Now I've integrated it, I will do my best to understand it! :D

ingh.am Over a year ago

Thanks for the ToArray example btw! +1 Is the m => m.Value known as a lambda expression or have I mis-remembered something else?

Sergey Berezovskiy Over a year ago

@ing0 it matches either one or more characters which is not comma or quotes, or it matches anything between quoutes (which is not quotes)

ingh.am Over a year ago

I understand that some people dislike regex but SO is not necessarily for opinions! I asked a question asking specifically for regex and with two or three lines of code in a answer I had the problem fixed within 5 minutes! Thanks again!

Fraser Over a year ago

@lazyberezovsky - you know what, I had my coffee and thought better of it. I will remove the down vote asap :)

|

Basem Saadawy · Accepted Answer · 2013-01-13 16:14:49Z

0

string originalString = @"1,2,3,""string"",""another,string"",4,5,6";
string regexPattern = @"(("".*?"")|(.*?))(,|$)";
foreach(Match match in  Regex.Matches(originalString, regexPattern))
{

}

answered Jan 13, 2013 at 16:14

Basem Saadawy

1,8182 gold badges20 silver badges31 bronze badges

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Writing a regex command to split an array in c#

2 Answers 2

7 Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

7 Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related