How do I extract text that lies between parentheses (round brackets)?

Question

I have a string User name (sales) and I want to extract the text between the brackets, how would I do this?

I suspect sub-string but I can\'t work out

Answer 1

Assuming that you only have one pair of parenthesis.

string s = "User name (sales)";
int start = s.IndexOf("(") + 1;
int end = s.IndexOf(")", start);
string result = s.Substring(start, end - start);

Answer 2

If you wish to stay away from regular expressions, the simplest way I can think of is:

string input = "User name (sales)";
string output = input.Split('(', ')')[1];

Answer 3

using System;
using System.Text.RegularExpressions;

private IEnumerable<string> GetSubStrings(string input, string start, string end)
{
    Regex r = new Regex(Regex.Escape(start) +`"(.*?)"`  + Regex.Escape(end));
    MatchCollection matches = r.Matches(input);
    foreach (Match match in matches)
    yield return match.Groups[1].Value;
}

Answer 4

This code is faster than most solutions here (if not all), packed as String extension method, it does not support recursive nesting:

public static string GetNestedString(this string str, char start, char end)
{
    int s = -1;
    int i = -1;
    while (++i < str.Length)
        if (str[i] == start)
        {
            s = i;
            break;
        }
    int e = -1;
    while(++i < str.Length)
        if (str[i] == end)
        {
            e = i;
            break;
        }
    if (e > s)
        return str.Substring(s + 1, e - s - 1);
    return null;
}

This one is little longer and slower, but it handles recursive nesting more nicely:

public static string GetNestedString(this string str, char start, char end)
{
    int s = -1;
    int i = -1;
    while (++i < str.Length)
        if (str[i] == start)
        {
            s = i;
            break;
        }
    int e = -1;
    int depth = 0;
    while (++i < str.Length)
        if (str[i] == end)
        {
            e = i;
            if (depth == 0)
                break;
            else
                --depth;
        }
        else if (str[i] == start)
            ++depth;
    if (e > s)
        return str.Substring(s + 1, e - s - 1);
    return null;
}

Answer 5

int start = input.IndexOf("(") + 1;
int length = input.IndexOf(")") - start;
output = input.Substring(start, length);