[2005] help with parsing

what is the best way to parse out items in a textbox?

i need to capture all the values between []

example:

Hello [name]

Blah blah blah [place]

Thank you.
[user]



This is what i'm trying with no luck

Code:

---

        Dim sMsgBody As String = Me.TextBox1.Text
        Dim split As String() = sMsgBody.Split(New [Char]() {"["c, "]"c})

        Dim s As String
        For Each s In split
            If s.Trim() <> "" Then

                Console.WriteLine(s)

            End If
        Next s

---

Here you go...

Code:

---

Option Strict On
Imports system.Text.RegularExpressions
Public Class Form1

    Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) _
    Handles MyBase.Load

        Dim matches As MatchCollection = Regex.Matches(TextBox1.Text, "\[.*?\]")

        Dim TextItems As New ArrayList
        For i As Integer = 0 To matches.Count - 1
            TextItems.Add(matches(i).ToString.Replace("[", String.Empty).Replace("]", String.Empty))
            MessageBox.Show(TextItems(i).ToString)
        Next

    End Sub
End Class

---

If the text items can be split over multiple lines then use;

Code:

---

Dim matches As MatchCollection = Regex.Matches(TextBox1.Text, "\[.*?\]", RegexOptions.Singleline)

---

and also use

Code:

---

TextItems.Add(matches(i).ToString.Replace("[", String.Empty).Replace("]", String.Empty).Replace(ControlChars.NewLine, String.Empty))

---

You can use Regex.
Try this

Code:

---

Dim input As String = "Hello [Mike], how[are]you doing[?]"
        Dim pattern As String = "(?<=\[).*?(?=\])"
        Dim matches As System.Text.RegularExpressions.MatchCollection
        matches = System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.Matches(input, pattern)
        For Each m As System.Text.RegularExpressions.Match In matches
            MessageBox.Show(m.Value)
        Next

---

in the pattern (?<=\[).*?(?=\])

the items between ) ( are not skipped?

start: (?<=\'Start Value')
end: (?=\'End Value')
ignore: ) ignore contents (


am i close to understanding this?

(?<=XXX) means to include this prefix (XXX) in the search but do not add it to the result.
(?=XXX) means to include this suffix (XXX) in the search but do not add it to the result
So the end result is what in between the prefix and suffix.
The \ is just the escape character since the squared brackets are special characters used by regex, so you have to use the escape char to let it know that it should treat the [ and ] as literals.