Unexpected Regex Result Occured

Question

The following code segment gives me unexpected results. But, I'd like to take right result.

Code syntax:

string parametersText = "\"parameter1\", \"parameter2\", \"parameter3\"";

    string findPattern = "(?<=\").*?(?=\"(, |$))";
    MatchCollection mc = Regex.Matches(parametersText, findPattern);

The result:

parameter1
, "parameter2
, "parameter3

But I'd like to get as following:

parameter1
parameter2
parameter3

How Can I Acheve this?

Any helps would be very appreciated.

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 03 '13 at 12:03

2

The lookarounds do not consume characters and as such, it starts matching on the next \" and ends specifically on the next \"(, |$).

Try adding the (, |$) in the lookbehind as well:

(?<=(?:, |^)\").*?(?=\"(?:, |$))

I converted the capture groups into non-capture groups btw.

answered Sep 03 '13 at 12:03

Jerry

Oh and forgot to mention that the `$` of course should be converted to `^` :) – Jerry Sep 03 '13 at 12:08

dav_i · Answer 2 · 2013-09-03T12:04:44.620

0

Don't use Regex?

string parametersText = "\"parameter1\", \"parameter2\", \"parameter3\"";

parametersText.Split(',').Select(a => a.Replace("\"", "").Trim());

Or as per suggestions

parametersText.Split(new[] { ", " }, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries).Select(a => a.Trim('"', ' '));

edited Sep 03 '13 at 12:04

answered Sep 03 '13 at 11:55

dav_i

But, what if a comma ',' comes inside parameters? – Mesut Sep 03 '13 at 11:59
1

or `text.Split(", ").Select(x=>x.Trim(new []{'\\', '"'}))` – python_kaa Sep 03 '13 at 11:59
I'd like to use regex, without regex, I can find solution. Thanks for your comments. – Mesut Sep 03 '13 at 12:01
then `parametersText.Split(new [] {"\\\""}, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries).Select(x=>x.Trim()).Where(x=>x != ",")` – python_kaa Sep 03 '13 at 12:02

score 0 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:29

0

.* is greedy and will match as many characters as possible, thus including , " where possible. You can read up on the topic here: Greedy, Non-Greedy, All-Greedy Matching in C# Regex

edited May 23 '17 at 12:29

Community

answered Sep 03 '13 at 11:59

SvenS

3 Answers3