C#: Parse substring from a string by detecting whitespace.

Question

If I have various strings that have text followed by whitespace followed by text, how can I parse the substring beginning with the first character in the second block of text?

For example: If I have the string:
"stringA stringB"

How can I extract the substring
"stringB"

The strings are of various lengths but will all be of the format .

I'm sure this can be easily done with regex but I'm having trouble finding the proper syntax for c#.

Answer 1

No RegEx needed, just split it.

var test = "stringA stringB";
var second = test.Split()[1];

and if you are in the wonderful LINQ-land

var second = "string1 string2".Split().ElementAtOrDefault(1);

and with RegEx (for completeness)

var str2 = Regex.Match("str1 str2", @"\w (.*$)").Groups[1].Value;

Answer 2

use string.Split()

var test = "stringA stringB";
var elements = test.Split(new[]
{
    ' '
});
var desiredItem = elements.ElementAtOrDefault(1);

if you want to capture all whitespaces (msdn tells us more):

var test = "stringA stringB";
//var elements = test.Split(); // pseudo overload
var elements = test.Split(null); // correct overload
var desiredItem = elements.ElementAtOrDefault(1);

edit:
why pseudo-overload?

• .Split() gets compiled to .Split(new char[0])
• not documented in MSDN

Answer 3

If all strings are separated by a whitespace you don't need a regex here. You could just use the Split() method:

string[] result = { };
string myStrings = "stringA stringB stringC";
result = myStrings.Split(' ');

Answer 4

You don't need event the Split(). I think a simple IndexOf/Substring will do the job.

        var input = "A B";
        var result = string.Empty;
        var index = input.IndexOf(' ');
        if (index >= 0)
        {
            result = input.Substring(index + 1);
        }