Parsing strings by using RegEx

Question

First let me post you some example strings:

string_position = ("\"%s\";\"%s\";\"%s\";\"\";\"%s\"\r\n\"%s\";\"%s\";\"%s\";\"%s - %s\";\"%s\";\"%.0f\";\"FR\";\"%.2f\";\"%.2f\";\"%.2f\";\"%s\";\"%s\";\"%s\";\"%s\";\"\";\"\";\"\";\"\";\"\";\"\";\"\";\"\";\"\";\"\";\"\";\"\";\"\";\"\";\"B\"\r\n",POSNR_NR_ID,POSNR_NR_ID,POSNR,POSNR_NR_ID,ARTNR_NR_ID,POSNR_NR_ID,CP90NAME,TEXT1,TEXT2,ARTNR_NR_ID,CNT,WIDTH,HEIGHT,DEPTH,INFO1,INFO2,INFO3,INFO4)

string_position = ("STK_PD_BEZ|%s|STK_ID|%s|STK_EBENE|0|ID|%s\r\nSTK_ID|%s|ORDERPOS|%s|STK_EBENE|1|STK_PD_BEZ|%s|STK_FLAENGE|%.2f|STK_FBREITE|%.2f|STK_FDICKE|%.2f|ID|%s|PARENTID|%s\r\n",POSNR,ORDERID,POSNR_NR_ID,ORDERID,POSSTR,CP90NAME,WIDTH,DEPTH,HEIGHT,ARTNR_NR_ID,POSNR_NR_ID)

So I want to parse those strings, but I don't know how I could start. As I result I want to have two arrays for each string, for example (string 2):

array_a[0] = STK_PD_BEZ|%s;
array_b[0] = POSNR;

array_a[1] = STK_ID|%s;
array_b[1] = ORDERID;

etc...

I hope you understand my problem. I have to find the complementary "variable" to each %s. So the algorithm has to work with any string that looks like the ones I've posted.

Thank you for any help.

Answer 1

Just quick implementation, hope it will be useful. I don't go with regex for this particualr task. I think simple parser will be enough here.

        // const string test = "STK_PD_BEZ|%s|STK_ID|%s|STK_EBENE|0|ID|%s\r\nSTK_ID|%s|ORDERPOS|%s|STK_EBENE|1|STK_PD_BEZ|%s|STK_FLAENGE|%.2f|STK_FBREITE|%.2f|STK_FDICKE|%.2f|ID|%s|PARENTID|%s\r\n,POSNR,ORDERID,POSNR_NR_ID,ORDERID,POSSTR,CP90NAME,WIDTH,DEPTH,HEIGHT,ARTNR_NR_ID,POSNR_NR_ID";

        const string test = "\"%s\";\"%s\";\"%s\";\"\";\"%s\"\r\n\"%s\";\"%s\";\"%s\";\"%s - %s\";\"%s\";\"%.0f\";\"FR\";\"%.2f\";\"%.2f\";\"%.2f\";\"%s\";\"%s\";\"%s\";\"%s\";\"\";\"\";\"\";\"\";\"\";\"\";\"\";\"\";\"\";\"\";\"\";\"\";\"\";\"\";\"B\"\r\n,POSNR_NR_ID,POSNR_NR_ID,POSNR,POSNR_NR_ID,ARTNR_NR_ID,POSNR_NR_ID,CP90NAME,TEXT1,TEXT2,ARTNR_NR_ID,CNT,WIDTH,HEIGHT,DEPTH,INFO1,INFO2,INFO3,INFO4";

        // [0] - format string
        // [1..n] - arguments for format
        string[] args = test.Split(',');

        // Source parts divided by delimiters. You can extend it.
        string[] parts = args[0].Split("|\r\n;-".ToCharArray(), StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries);

        // Format - arg pair
        var parsed = new List<Tuple<string, string>>();

        // Current format string
        var format = new List<string>();

        // Start from 1 since we skip format string
        int currentValue = 1;

        // Building
        foreach (var part in parts)
        {
            if (part.Contains("%"))
            {
                format.Add(part);
                parsed.Add(Tuple.Create(string.Join("|", format), args[currentValue++]));

                format.Clear();
            }
            else format.Add(part);
        }

        // Printing
        foreach (var pair in parsed)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("{0} = {1}", pair.Item1, pair.Item2);
        }

        Console.ReadLine();

Output:

STK_PD_BEZ|%s = POSNR

STK_ID|%s = ORDERID

STK_EBENE|0|ID|%s = POSNR_NR_ID

STK_ID|%s = ORDERID

ORDERPOS|%s = POSSTR

STK_EBENE|1|STK_PD_BEZ|%s = CP90NAME

STK_FLAENGE|%.2f = WIDTH

STK_FBREITE|%.2f = DEPTH

STK_FDICKE|%.2f = HEIGHT

ID|%s = ARTNR_NR_ID

PARENTID|%s = POSNR_NR_ID

Output2:

"%s" = POSNR_NR_ID

"%s" = POSNR_NR_ID

"%s" = POSNR

""|"%s" = POSNR_NR_ID

"%s" = ARTNR_NR_ID

"%s" = POSNR_NR_ID

"%s" = CP90NAME

"%s = TEXT1

%s" = TEXT2

"%s" = ARTNR_NR_ID

"%.0f" = CNT

"FR"|"%.2f" = WIDTH

"%.2f" = HEIGHT

"%.2f" = DEPTH

"%s" = INFO1

"%s" = INFO2

"%s" = INFO3

"%s" = INFO4

---

UPDATE:

Without formal specification parser's code will be rather empirical than formally valid. So first of all I would recommend start with making specification for your input then you can easily make parser which would accept all valid strings. For example you can start with Syntax diagrams