Regex to extract string between 2 different characters and strings

Question

Short question, but can't make it work. I have a string:

COMPANY NAME - username (Name Surname).

What kind of regex will give me username (without spaces) from between - and ( in such example?

It's ASP.NET C# if it makes any difference. Thanks in advance !

EDIT : The company name is a string with possible spaces. Username is without spaces. The characters - and ( are present only in these 2 places. I thought it was 100% obvious since I gave such example.

Come on, more details. As the question is written now, the regex username meets your requirements... — Tim Pietzcker
– Tim Pietzcker, Commented Oct 13, 2011 at 13:13
@Tim-Pietzcker no spaces in username. Obviously I'd mention it if it was possible. — yosh
– yosh, Commented Oct 13, 2011 at 13:16

xanatos · Accepted Answer · 2011-10-13 14:04:37Z

3

var match = Regex.Match(
    "COMPANY - ltd (NAME) - username (Name Surname)", 
    @"^.* - (.*?) \(.*\)$"
);
var username = match.Groups[1].Value;

If your line ends with a . then the Regex is @"^.* - (.*?) $.*$\.$"

Through the use of .*? (the lazy quantifier) this Regex is quite resistant to strange "things" like the one I'm using as a test.

Link with tests. Pass over each row to see the capture group.

edited Oct 13, 2011 at 14:04

answered Oct 13, 2011 at 13:07

xanatos

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Comments

FailedDev · Accepted Answer · 2011-10-13 13:09:54Z

3

string resultString = null;
try {
    resultString = Regex.Match(subjectString, @"-\s+(\S*)\s*\(").Groups[1].Value;
} catch (ArgumentException ex) {
    // Syntax error in the regular expression
}

Output : username

edited Oct 13, 2011 at 13:09

answered Oct 13, 2011 at 12:58

FailedDev

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3 Comments

Tim Pietzcker Over a year ago

You can remove both RegexOptions. And of course this only works if username doesn't contain spaces. Which is a reasonable assumption, therefore +1.

FailedDev Over a year ago

@TimPietzcker Option were forgotten in from previous regex :S. +1 For pointing it out!

yosh Over a year ago

This is very good, thank you. Usually usernames don't contain spaces and I didn't mention spaces in question so assumption was good :)

Shivprasad Koirala · Accepted Answer · 2011-10-13 14:42:56Z

0

You can watch the below youtube regular expression video , i am sure the above question you can answer it yourself.

http://youtu.be/C2zm0roE-Uc

answered Oct 13, 2011 at 14:42

Shivprasad Koirala

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Comments

DavidO · Accepted Answer · 2012-07-31 00:55:06Z

0

It's easy to test regexes with grep:

kent$  echo "COMPANY NAME - username (Name Surname)."|grep -Po '(?<=- ).*(?= \()'
username

edited Jul 31, 2012 at 0:55

DavidO

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answered Oct 13, 2011 at 12:59

Kent

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