Question

I would need to split a string by comma but to ignore certain cases.

For example this string (after each comma is a space character):

my word 1, my word 2, my word 3, “my word x, my word y, my word z”, my word 4, my word 5

should be split so that will display:

my word 1

my word 2

my word 3

“my word x, my word y, my word z”

my word 4

my word 5

Basically all words should be split after the comma, except the ones that are in double quotes should be shown as they are with the quotes.

Answer 1

string text = @"my word 1, my word 2, ""my word x, my word y"", my word 3";
string pattern = @"[^,""]+|""([^""]*)""";
IEnumerable<string> result = Regex.Matches(text, pattern).Cast<Match>()
                                  .Select(m => m.Value.Trim())
                                  .Where(s => !String.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(s));

Result:

my word 1     
my word 2    
"my word x, my word y"    
my word 3