Question

I’d like to split the following string into three elements:

first, middle, middle, middle, middle, last

So the result would be:

splits[0] = "first"
splits[1] = "middle, middle, middle, middle"
splits[2] = "last"

I don’t know if this is best done by regex or string methods.

Answer 1

var s = "first, middle, middle, middle, middle, last";
var singleItems = s.Split(',').Select(x => x.Trim());
var splits = new []
             {
                 singleItems.Take(1).Single(),
                 singleItems.Skip(1).Take(singleItems.Count() - 2)
                                    .Aggregate("", (s1, s2) => s1 + s2 + ", ")
                                    .Trim(' ', ','),
                 singleItems.Skip(singleItems.Count() - 1).Single()
             };

An alternative way of doing it would be this:

var firstIndex = s.IndexOf(',');
var lastIndex = s.LastIndexOf(',');
var splits = new []
             {
                 s.Substring(0, firstIndex),
                 s.Substring(firstIndex + 2, lastIndex - (firstIndex + 2)),
                 s.Substring(lastIndex + 2)
             };

I think the second solution is cleaner and easier to understand. But it has the disadvantage that the first and the last comma must be followed by a space. This requirement does not exist for the first version.