How to split string with multiple separator?

Question

Let's say that I have a string that has the following:

string mystr = "*myid*-myemail-:mypwd:*myid2*-myemail2-:mypwd2:*myid3*-myemail3-:mypwd3:";

and I want to get each of the substrings that have the'*' and then add them to a new string and then get each of the values that have the ':' same with the one that has '-', and so I tried this using the split method, but it does not work.

string mystr = "*myid*-myemail-:mypwd:*myid2*-myemail2-:mypwd2:*myid3*-myemail3-:mypwd3:";

string[] myid = mystr.Split('*');
string[] myemail = mystr.Split('-');
string[] mypwd = mystr.Split(':');
string ids = "";
string emails = "";
string pwds = "";

 foreach (string k in myid)
{
    Console.WriteLine("THESE ARE THE IDS");
    Console.WriteLine(k);
}
foreach (string k in myemail)
{
    Console.WriteLine("THESE ARE THE EMAILS");
    Console.WriteLine(k);
}
foreach (string k in mypwd)
{
    Console.WriteLine("THESE ARE THE PASSWORDS");
    Console.WriteLine(k);
}

Here is the console output:

THESE ARE THE IDS

THESE ARE THE IDS
myid
THESE ARE THE IDS
-myemail-:mypwd:
THESE ARE THE IDS
myid2
THESE ARE THE IDS
-myemail2-:mypwd2:
THESE ARE THE IDS
myid3
THESE ARE THE IDS
-myemail3-:mypwd3:
THESE ARE THE EMAILS
*myid*
THESE ARE THE EMAILS
myemail
THESE ARE THE EMAILS
:mypwd:*myid2*
THESE ARE THE EMAILS
myemail2
THESE ARE THE EMAILS
:mypwd2:*myid3*
THESE ARE THE EMAILS
myemail3
THESE ARE THE EMAILS
:mypwd3:
THESE ARE THE PASSWORDS
*myid*-myemail-
THESE ARE THE PASSWORDS
mypwd
THESE ARE THE PASSWORDS
*myid2*-myemail2-
THESE ARE THE PASSWORDS
mypwd2
THESE ARE THE PASSWORDS
*myid3*-myemail3-
THESE ARE THE PASSWORDS
mypwd3
THESE ARE THE PASSWORDS

And this is what I want it to look like:

THESE ARE THE PASSWORDS
mypwd
mypwd2
mypwd3

 THESE ARE THE EMAILs
myemail
myemail2
myemail3

THESE ARE THE IDS
myid
myid2
myid3

well this is the output of the console myid -myemail-:mypwd: myid2 -myemail2-:mypwd2: myid3 -myemail3-:mypwd3: myid myemail :mypwd:*myid2* myemail2 :mypwd2:*myid3* myemail3 :mypwd3: myid-myemail- mypwd myid2-myemail2- mypwd2 myid3-myemail3- mypwd3 — cipher_449449
– cipher_449449, Commented Jul 17, 2021 at 0:22
Put the output in the question you are setting and the output you want instead. — mjwills
– mjwills, Commented Jul 17, 2021 at 0:24
I assume that your mystr actually contains real email addresses & passwords? — Enigmativity
– Enigmativity, Commented Jul 17, 2021 at 0:29
@cipher_449449 - Please note that the real-world data would significantly alter how to answer this question. You should be very clear on what characters can appear in your email and/or passwords. — Enigmativity
– Enigmativity, Commented Jul 17, 2021 at 1:26

41686d6564 · Accepted Answer · 2021-07-17 00:39:05Z

2

You may use Regular Expressions for this:

string mystr = "*myid*-myemail-:mypwd:*myid2*-myemail2-:mypwd2:*myid3*-myemail3-:mypwd3:";
var matches = Regex.Matches(mystr, @"\*(?<Id>[^*]+)\*-(?<Email>[^-]+)-:(?<Password>[^:]+):");

Then, you can either access the matches as follows:

foreach (Match match in matches)
{
    Console.WriteLine("Id=" + match.Groups["Id"].Value);
    Console.WriteLine("Email=" + match.Groups["Email"].Value);
    Console.WriteLine("Password=" + match.Groups["Password"].Value);
}

Or if you want to group the Ids, emails, and passwords together, use:

var ids = matches.OfType<Match>().Select(m => m.Groups["Id"].Value);
var emails = matches.OfType<Match>().Select(m => m.Groups["Email"].Value);
var passwords = matches.OfType<Match>().Select(m => m.Groups["Password"].Value);

foreach (string id in ids)
    Console.WriteLine(id);

foreach (string email in emails)
    Console.WriteLine(email);

foreach (string password in passwords)
    Console.WriteLine(password);

Try it online.

Note, however, that this might break because an email address could contain a hyphen character and the password could contain a colon. In that case, you need to come up with a more robust format for the input text.

edited Jul 17, 2021 at 0:39

answered Jul 17, 2021 at 0:35

41686d6564

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2 Comments

Enigmativity Over a year ago

It's fair that this works with the OP's anaemic example string, but it fails quickly with real-world data where the email and/or password contain the splitting characters.

41686d6564 Over a year ago

@Enigmativity Yep, I was just adding that as a warning in the answer :)

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