vb.net Regexp Split comma separated String

Question

I have a String , which contains a list of mail addresses like so:

Dim address1 As String = """Merkel, Angela"" <angela@example.com>, ""Peter Altmeyer"" <peter@example.com>"

what I'm trying to archieve is to separate the String at the comma. I figure I need Regexp.Split therefore, but I don't have a clue, what exactly I have to do to get the output array of

"Merkel, Angela" <angela@example.com>
"Peter Altmeyer" <peter@example.com>

I'm especially confused by the double quotation mark "" to escape the quotation mark. Is this also escaped like so in the regular expression?

Answer 1

You can simply do it with the String.Split method, by including the ">" in the separator (">, "); however the ">" will be missing from the result and will have to re-add it.

With Regex you can do it as follows:

Dim parts() As String = Regex.Split(address1, "(?<=>),\s")

Here I am using the Regex pattern

(?<=prefix)find

which finds a position following a prefix. The result does not include the prefix. Therefore only ", " is removed from the output and the ">" remains.

Answer 2

You can split on this RegEx: (?<=>),\\s*?(?="") . It finds commas (with zero or more whitespaces after) preceded by a < and proceeded by a "" .

Answer 3

Dim address1 As String = """Merkel, Angela"" <angela@example.com>, ""Peter Altmeyer""     <peter@example.com>"
Dim parts() As String = Regex.Split(address1, "(?<=>),\s*?(?="")")