Question

While using some regex in C#, I’m facing the following problem :

Consider this simple string : ~0~This is a simple text~POP~NIZ~0~0~

I would like to pick any strings between two ‘~’, that contains more than 3 chars except of course the ‘~’. In my example, the would be :

This is a simple text

I could make something like : ([\w]|[\d]|.|\,……………..){4-500}

I would end with a really long regex, impossible to debug and not readable…

Instead, I would prefer to create a regex like “Give me any characters, except ‘~’ that is contained between ‘~’ and ‘~’ “.

I can’t find a way to use [^] properly !

How can I do this ?

Thanks in advance !

ANSWER : I’ve finally done this : ~[^~]{3,}~

It takes everything but ‘~’, contained between two ‘~’ and that is more than three chars long.

Thanks for your answers !

Answer 1

If you don’t mind a possible extra batch from the start and the end, it should be as easy as:

[^~]{3,}

Or, you can just split and take the long ones:

var tokens = str.Split('~').Where(s => s.Length >= 3);

If you do want to limit the characters to a specific set, you can use lookahead and behind to make sure. This will not consume the tilde signs, so you get two matches for ~123~abc~ (again, you can use [^~] if you are move comfortable with it):

(?<=~)[\w\d\s]{3,}(?=~)