Get string between two strings in a string

Question

I have a string like:

\"super exemple of string key : text I want to keep - end of my string\"

I want to just keep the string which is betw

Answer 1

string input = "super exemple of string key : text I want to keep - end of my string";
var match = Regex.Match(input, @"key : (.+?)-").Groups[1].Value;

or with just string operations

var start = input.IndexOf("key : ") + 6;
var match2 = input.Substring(start, input.IndexOf("-") - start);

Answer 2

As I always say nothing is impossible:

string value =  "super exemple of string key : text I want to keep - end of my string";
Regex regex = new Regex(@"(key \: (.*?) _ )");
Match match = regex.Match(value);
if (match.Success)
{
    Messagebox.Show(match.Value);
}

Remeber that should add reference of System.Text.RegularExpressions

Hope That I Helped.

Answer 3

You already have some good answers and I realize the code I am providing is far from the most efficient and clean. However, I thought it might be useful for educational purposes. We can use pre-built classes and libraries all day long. But without understanding the inner-workings, we are simply mimicking and repeating and will never learn anything. This code works and is more basic or "virgin" than some of the others:

char startDelimiter = ':';
char endDelimiter = '-';

Boolean collect = false;

string parsedString = "";

foreach (char c in originalString)
{
    if (c == startDelimiter)
         collect = true;

    if (c == endDelimiter)
         collect = false;

    if (collect == true && c != startDelimiter)
         parsedString += c;
}

You end up with your desired string assigned to the parsedString variable. Keep in mind that it will also capture proceeding and preceding spaces. Remember that a string is simply an array of characters that can be manipulated like other arrays with indices etc.

Take care.

Answer 4

A working LINQ solution:

string str = "super exemple of string key : text I want to keep - end of my string";
string res = new string(str.SkipWhile(c => c != ':')
                           .Skip(1)
                           .TakeWhile(c => c != '-')
                           .ToArray()).Trim();
Console.WriteLine(res); // text I want to keep

Answer 5

Since the : and the - are unique you could use:

string input;
string output;
input = "super example of string key : text I want to keep - end of my string";
output = input.Split(new char[] { ':', '-' })[1];