Extracting Data from a String Using Regular Expressions.

Question

Hi guys,

I need some help extracting the following bits of information using regular expressions.

Here is my input string "C:\Yes"

**** Missing character at start of string and in between but not at the end = a weird superscript looking L.***

I need to extract "C:\" into one string and "Yes" into another.

Thanks In Advance.

Answer 1

The following regular expression returns C:\ in the first capture group and the rest in the second:

 ^(\w:\\)(.*)$

This is looking for: a full string (^…$) starting with a letter (\w, although [a-z] would probably more accurate for Windows drive letters), followed by :\. All the rest (.*) is captured in the second group.

Notice that this won’t work with UNC paths. If you’re working with paths, your best bet is not to use strings and regular expressions but rather the API found in System.IO. The classes found there already offer the functionality that you want.

Answer 2

Regex r = new Regex("([A-Z]:\\)([A-Za-z]+)");
Match m = r.Match(@"C:\");

string val1 = m.Groups[0];
string val2 = m.Groups[1];

Answer 3

I wouldn't bother with regular expressions for that. Too much work, and I'd be too likely to screw it up.

var x = @"C:\Yes";

var root = Path.GetPathRoot(x);  // => @"C:\"
var file = Path.GetFileName(x);  // => "Yes"