Split a string using Regular Expression

Question

I have a string like:

personname=aanch&personaddress=Jammu & Kashmir&personmobile=9876543210

My desired output is:

personname=aanch
personaddress=Jammu & Kashmir
personmobile=9876543210

Is it possible to use a Regular Expression to split the string on & and get the result above?

Not directly, but you can split it and then make a second pass which merges the shorter ones with their neighbours — Flexo - Save the data dump
– Flexo - Save the data dump ♦, Commented May 2, 2012 at 10:24
If the string is not of any fixed size, like ABC&DE&F&GH&I and I want the output string like ABC DE F GH&I............& here is an character not separator... — aanch
– aanch, Commented May 2, 2012 at 10:30
@aanch: The rules are still not clear, at least to me. Can you define exactly when a & should be split on (and when not)? — Tim Pietzcker
– Tim Pietzcker, Commented May 2, 2012 at 10:31
If this is a query string, then & cannot appear unescaped in there, as far as I know. Are you doing percent-decoding first and now try damage control? — Joey
– Joey, Commented May 2, 2012 at 13:58

Tim Pietzcker · Accepted Answer · 2012-05-02 12:51:37Z

2

With the re-edit of the question, I do see a solution that might actually work:

splitArray = Regex.Split(subjectString, 
    @"&    # Split on a &
    (?=    # but only if it's followed by...
     \w+   # a series of alphanumeric characters
     =     # and an equals sign
    )      # End of lookahead assertion", 
    RegexOptions.IgnorePatternWhitespace);

answered May 2, 2012 at 12:51

Tim Pietzcker

337k59 gold badges520 silver badges572 bronze badges

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

Comments

Bob Vale · Accepted Answer · 2012-05-02 14:34:27Z

0

EDIT - With the change of question

 var regex = new Regex(@"&(?<=[^&=]+=)")

Which the break down is

& - match &

(?<=[^&=]+=) - Match but don't include atleast one character that isn't & or = followed by =

Alternatively if you actually after the names and values you can do the following

var regex=new Regex(@"(?>^|&)(?<name>.*?)=(?<value>.*?)(?=$|&[^&]+?=)");
var text="personname=aanch&personaddress=Jammu & Kashmir&personmobile=9876543210";
foreach (Match match in regex.Matches(text)) {
    var name=match.Groups["name"].Value;
    var value=match.Groups["value"].Value;
    // Do something with values
}

edited May 2, 2012 at 14:34

answered May 2, 2012 at 10:37

Bob Vale

18.5k1 gold badge44 silver badges51 bronze badges

2 Comments

Hemant Metalia Over a year ago

the criteria is not clear as aanch said that & which is covered with spaces is considered as a character not a separator.

Bob Vale Over a year ago

@HemantMetalia The comments in the question were not visible when I posted, I've now added an edit, but I agree the JK&L example does not seem to the OP criteria

Misam · Accepted Answer · 2012-05-02 10:46:35Z

-1

But why do you need reg-ex to split the string. You can use normal C# string split function to get the desired result

string text = "ABC&DEF&GHI&JK&L&MNO&P&Q"
var splitString = text.split(text,"&");

The splitted string will be stored as an array in splitString

answered May 2, 2012 at 10:46

Misam

4,3892 gold badges28 silver badges43 bronze badges

1 Comment

Hemant Metalia Over a year ago

have you gone through the op of the question?

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Split a string using Regular Expression

3 Answers 3

Comments

2 Comments

1 Comment

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

3 Answers 3

Comments

2 Comments

1 Comment

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related