Regular Expression Problem

[John Lorenzen]

Given the following string Washington,George W.
how can I use regular expression to extract the parts of the name out
lastname should be from the start of the string till the comma
firstname should be from the comma to the space
middle name from the space to the end to the string

 

[Thomas T. Veldhouse]

Given the following string Washington,George W.
how can I use regular expression to extract the parts of the name out
lastname should be from the start of the string till the comma
firstname should be from the comma to the space
middle name from the space to the end to the string

You could use Regex for this if you like, but it seems easier to use
String.Split()

string[] name = georgesName.Split(',');

 

[Alan Pretre]

Given the following string Washington,George W.
how can I use regular expression to extract the parts of the name out
lastname should be from the start of the string till the comma
firstname should be from the comma to the space
middle name from the space to the end to the string

How about

^(.+),(.+?)\s+(.+)$


Results for these input:

Washington,George W.
1 matches.
Match 1 has 4 groups.
Group 1 = "Washington,George W."
Group 2 = "Washington"
Group 3 = "George"
Group 4 = "W."



Bush,George H. W.
1 matches.
Match 1 has 4 groups.
Group 1 = "Bush,George H. W."
Group 2 = "Bush"
Group 3 = "George"
Group 4 = "H. W."



-- Alan

 

[Thomas T. Veldhouse]

Given the following string Washington,George W.
how can I use regular expression to extract the parts of the name out
lastname should be from the start of the string till the comma
firstname should be from the comma to the space
middle name from the space to the end to the string

You could use Regex for this if you like, but it seems easier to use
String.Split()

string[] name = georgesName.Split(',');

My bad ... I didn't read thoroughly to realize that you wanted the middle
initial or name grouped as well. Regex is definitely the proper solution in
that case. I see another poster posted a regex recipe, so perhaps that is
what you are looking for.

 

[John Lorenzen]

This ^(.+),(.+?)\s+(.+)$ pattern works great except for the following case

Washington,George

I was hoping for
Washington
George

 

[Alan Pretre]

This ^(.+),(.+?)\s+(.+)$ pattern works great except for the following case

Washington,George

I was hoping for
Washington
George

OK.


^(.+),(.+?)(?:\s+(.+))*$


Washington,George
1 matches.
Match 1 has 4 groups.
Group 1 = "Washington,George"
Group 2 = "Washington"
Group 3 = "George"
Group 4 = ""


Bush,George W.
1 matches.
Match 1 has 4 groups.
Group 1 = "Bush,George W."
Group 2 = "Bush"
Group 3 = "George"
Group 4 = "W."


Bush,George H. W.
1 matches.
Match 1 has 4 groups.
Group 1 = "Bush,George H. W."
Group 2 = "Bush"
Group 3 = "George"
Group 4 = "H. W."




-- Alan

 

[John Lorenzen]

Thanks Alan, could you recommend a good Regular Expression book?

 

[Alan Pretre]

Thanks Alan, could you recommend a good Regular Expression book?

I think the O'Reilly books are the best, at least for the Unix world, which
is where RegExp originates.

You may prefer a book tailored specifically for .NET, though.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_b...d-keywords=regular+expressions&Go.x=18&Go.y=2

-- Alan