Question

I have the following text that I am trying to parse:

"[e-mail]" <[e-mail]>, "Jane Doe" <jane.doe@ addyB.org>,
"[e-mail]" <[e-mail]>

I am using the following code to try and split up the string:

Dim groups As GroupCollection
Dim matches As MatchCollection
Dim regexp1 As New Regex("""(.*)"" <(.*)>")
matches = regexp1 .Matches(toNode.InnerText)
For Each match As Match In matches
    groups = match.Groups
    message.CompanyName = groups(1).Value
    message.CompanyEmail = groups(2).Value
Next

But this regular expression is greedy and is grabbing the entire string up to the last quote after “[e-mail]”. I’m having a hard time putting together an expression that will group this string into the two groups I’m looking for: Name (in the quotes) and E-Mail (in the angle brackets). Does anybody have any advice or suggestions for altering the regexp to get what I need?

Answer 1

Rather than rolling your own regular expression, I would do this:

string[] addresses = toNode.InnerText.Split(",");
foreach(string textAddress in addresses)
{
    textAddress = address.Trim();
    MailAddress address = new MailAddress(textAddress);
    message.CompanyName = address.DisplayName;
    message.CompanyEmail = address.Address;
}

While your regular expression may work for the few test cases that you have shown. Using the MailAddress class will probably be much more reliable in the long run.