Question

I trying to write – with no luck – the regex able to extract filter criteria from a string like:

String rawFilter = "field1: something field3: something else field2: any number of words";

Fields can come in any order, and I need to extract some kind of key-value pair list.

Update, as requested in comment. For what I know of regex, the first output could be an array with field names at even positions and value at odd positions. So that:

Console.WriteLine(matches[0]); //Prints field1
Console.WriteLine(matches[1]); //Prints something 
Console.WriteLine(matches[2]); //Prints field3
Console.WriteLine(matches[3]); //Prints something else
Console.WriteLine(matches[4]); //Prints field2
Console.WriteLine(matches[5]); //Prints any number of words

Answer 1

Fieldname is in group 1 and the value is in group 2:

Regex r = new Regex(@"(field\d:)\s*((?:(?!field).)*)");
            int i = 0;
            foreach (Match m in r.Matches("field1: something field3: something else field2: any number of words")) {
                Console.WriteLine(++i);
                Console.WriteLine("{0} -{1}", 1, m.Groups[1].Value);
                Console.WriteLine("{0} -{1}", 2, m.Groups[2].Value);
            }

prints:

1
1 -field1:
2 - something 
2
1 -field3:
2 - something else 
3
1 -field2:
2 - any number of words