Multiple split between two chars to string array

Question

I need to split a string that consists of html elements.

I want to split between two chars "<" and ">".

var htmlElements = "<p>lorem ipsum</p><span>nisi sapien</span><ul><li>list items</li></ul>";
string[] arrayOfElements = htmlElements.Split('<', '>')[1];

Using this code only pulls out the first "p". I need to pull out every element to a string array. The closing tag </p> doesn't matter, i need only the starting tag for every element.

Desired output is a string array containing p span ul li

See updated main post for desired output. I would like to solve it by NOT using a third party library — rickard
– rickard, Commented Oct 25, 2016 at 9:25

Dmitrii Bychenko · Accepted Answer · 2016-10-25 09:38:26Z

3

I suggest using regular expressions in order to extract (match) the required values:

string htmlElements = "<p>lorem ipsum</p><span>nisi sapien</span><ul><li>list items</li></ul>";

string[] arrayOfElements = Regex
  .Matches(htmlElements, @"<(\w+)>")
  .OfType<Match>()
  .Select(m => m.Groups[1].Value)
  .ToArray();

Test

// p span ul li
Console.Write(string.Join(" ", arrayOfElements));

In general case, parsing html by means of regular expressions is a bad idea, but if you want just to obtain items' values it can be good enough.

edited Oct 25, 2016 at 9:38

answered Oct 25, 2016 at 9:32

Dmitrii Bychenko

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1 Comment

rickard Over a year ago

It worked just as expected. I don't know why someone downvoted it?

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