How to match double quote or single quote or unquoted with regular expression?

Question

I am trying to grab sometext from all three types of inputs, but can\'t figure out how to deal with the unquoted case.

So far I have:

name=[\'\"](.         


        

Answer 1

It looks like you are a C# developer, so you can use the first matching group to ensure it is closed off with the same quote (and thus support phrase="Don't forget apostrophes").

Regex regex1 = new Regex(@"=(?:(['""])(.*?)\1|.*)");

string text = @" 
name=""don't forget me""
name='sometext'
name='sometext'
name=sometext
";

foreach (Match m in regex1.Matches(text))
   Console.WriteLine (m.Groups[2].Value);

Answer 2

Without knowing what could be after 'name=asdf', assume its whitespace or nothing
that delimits the end.

name= 
(?:
     (['"])((?:(?!\1).)*)\1    # (1,2)
 |   (\S*)                     # (3)
)

Answer is $2 catted with $3

Answer 3

I would use the OR operator | to specify the three cases separatly:

('[^'"]*')|("[^'"]*")|([^'"]*)

Depending on the regex dialect you are using, you have to define non matching groups separated by the OR operators, and matching groups for the words [^'"]*.