Question

I have a string like:

[a b="c" d="e"]Some multi line text[/a]

Now the part d="e" is optional. I want to convert such type of string into:

<a b="c" d="e">Some multi line text</a>

The values of a b and d are constant, so I don’t need to catch them. I just need the values of c, e and the text between the tags and create an equivalent xml based expression. So how to do that, because there is some optional part also.

Answer 1

For HTML tags, please use HTML parser.

For [a][/a], you can do like following

Match m=Regex.Match(@"[a b=""c"" d=""e""]Some multi line text[/a]", 
                    @"\[a b=""([^""]+)"" d=""([^""]+)""\](.*?)\[/a\]",
                    RegexOptions.Multiline);

m.Groups[1].Value
"c"
m.Groups[2].Value
"e"
m.Groups[3].Value
"Some multi line text"

Here is Regex.Replace (I am not that prefer though)

string inputStr = @"[a b=""[[[[c]]]]"" d=""e[]""]Some multi line text[/a]";
string resultStr=Regex.Replace(inputStr,
                            @"\[a( b=""[^""]+"")( d=""[^""]+"")?\](.*?)\[/a\]",
                            @"<a$1$2>$3</a>", 
                            RegexOptions.Multiline);