How do I extract text that lies between parenthese

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 how to read until the closing bracket, the length of text will vary.

Answer 1

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 2

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 3

A very simple way to do it is by using regular expressions:

Regex.Match("User name (sales)", @"\(([^)]*)\)").Groups[1].Value

---

As a response to the (very funny) comment, here's the same Regex with some explanation:

\(             # Escaped parenthesis, means "starts with a '(' character"
    (          # Parentheses in a regex mean "put (capture) the stuff 
               #     in between into the Groups array" 
       [^)]    # Any character that is not a ')' character
       *       # Zero or more occurrences of the aforementioned "non ')' char"
    )          # Close the capturing group
\)             # "Ends with a ')' character"

Answer 4

Use a Regular Expression:

string test = "(test)"; 
string word = Regex.Match(test, @"\((\w+)\)").Groups[1].Value;
Console.WriteLine(word);

Answer 5

I'm finding that regular expressions are extremely useful but very difficult to write. So, I did some research and found this tool that makes writing them so easy.

Don't shy away from them because the syntax is difficult to figure out. They can be so powerful.

Answer 6

I came across this while I was looking for a solution to a very similar implementation.

Here is a snippet from my actual code. Starts substring from the first char (index 0).

 string separator = "\n";     //line terminator

 string output;
 string input= "HowAreYou?\nLets go there!";

 output = input.Substring(0, input.IndexOf(separator));