Question

How can I parse multiple values from a formatted string in C#?

The string is in this format:
“blah blah blah (foo:this, bar:that)”

I need to parse out the foo and the bar value. The parentheses are always at the end of the line.

Edit: Sorry… that wasn’t very clear. What I meant was I need to know the “foo” value and the “bar” value, so that I can say, somewhere else, “foo is this” and “bar is that”.

Thanks

Answer 1

EDIT: updated after OP clarification.

This should do:

string input = "blah blah blah (foo:this, bar:that,1:one,2:two)";
string pattern = @"\((?:(?<Values>.*?:[^,\s]+)[,\s]*)+\)";
foreach (Match m in Regex.Matches(input, pattern))
{
    foreach (Capture c in m.Groups["Values"].Captures)
    {
        string[] values = c.Value.Split(':');
        Console.WriteLine("{0} : {1}", values[0], values[1]);
    }
}

This outputs:

• foo : this
• bar : that
• 1 : one
• 2 : two

If you need to ensure the match only occurs at the end of the string, rather than match similar formatted values elsewhere in the string, add $ to the end of the pattern:

string pattern = @"\((?:(?<Values>.*?:[^,\s]+)[,\s]*)+\)$";