What regex pattern will return the values(it can be series of single quotes) enclosed in the single quotes in C#.NET

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I have a value like this:
hello 'a' 'b' cc '''''

Can anybody help me in finding what regex pattern will return the values enclosed inside single quotes?
Values can be series of single quotes also like*: '<''''>' or '<'''''>'.

HTML

* < and > are used to distinguish between values and enclosing single quotes.

Posted 25-Mar-15 1:58am

Shrikant S

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3 solutions

Solution 1

You can try

C#

string stringToCheck = "'whatever'";
Regex r = new Regex(@"\s'([.]+)'\s", RegexOptions.Compiled);
string s;
foreach (Match m in r.Matches(stringToCheck)) {
   s = m.Groups[0].Value;
   // s should equal whatever
}

Posted 25-Mar-15 2:21am

phil.o

Comments

Shrikant S 25-Mar-15 8:35am

Thanks for the suggestion Phil, but your answer is not working !

string stringToCheck = "'whatever'";
Regex r = new Regex(@"\s'([.]+)'\s", RegexOptions.Compiled);
string s;
foreach (Match m in r.Matches(stringToCheck))
{
s = m.Groups[0].Value;
// s should equal whatever
MessageBox.Show(s);
}

Its not even returning "whatever" !

phil.o 25-Mar-15 8:38am

Then debug and see what is the value in m variable.

phil.o 25-Mar-15 14:43pm

I tested some more regular expressions ; it seems that it does not like the . inside the capture group. The only result I could get is to capture all characters thar are not ' ; so it does not fulfill your requirement:
\s*'([^']+)'\s*.
I don't know how to capture single quotes inside the single quotes.

Matt T Heffron 25-Mar-15 19:55pm

I think the error was putting the . into the [character_group]
Wouldn't
\s*'(.+)'\s*
capture everything between the outermost ' characters?

phil.o 26-Mar-15 1:36am

Yes, you're right; just tested it in expresso and that's working.
Good catch, thank you :)
Edit: But it does not pass the test with OP's example, though. It matches only one result, what is enclosed between initial and final single quotes.

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Matt T Heffron · Accepted Answer · 2015-03-27T14:15:00

Solution 3

The regex:
(?<!')'(.*?)'(?!')
should do it.

According to Expresso:
For:

hello 'a' 'b' cc '''''

it returns 3 matches:

a
b
'''

Posted 27-Mar-15 14:15pm

Matt T Heffron

Comments

Shrikant S 28-Mar-15 4:02am

Thanks Matt

Peter Leow · Accepted Answer · 2015-03-27T20:40:00

After a good rest, found it:

C#

using System;
using System.Text.RegularExpressions;

public class Program
{
    public static void Main()
    {
        string str = "hello 'a' 'b' cc '''''";
        Match match = Regex.Match(str, @"(?<=')[^'\s]+(?=')|['](?=')|(?<=')[']");
        while (match.Success)
        {
            Console.WriteLine(match.Value);
            match = match.NextMatch();
        }
    }
}

it will return:

a
b
'
'
'
'
'