How to parse this single line Console input most efficiently

Question

I am trying to get the input from the user in a single Line with with [, ,] separators. Like this:

[Q,W,1] [R,T,3] [Y,U,9]

And then I will use these inputs in a function like this:

f.MyFunction('Q','W',1); // Third parameter will be taken as integer
f.MyFunction('R','T',3);
f.MyFunction('Y','U',9);

I thought I could do sth like:

    string input = Console.ReadLine();
    string input1 = input.Split(' ')[0];
    char   input2 = input.Trim(',') [0];

But it seems to repeat a lot. What would be the most logical way to do this?

Answer 1

Sometimes a regular expression really is the best tool for the job. Use a pattern that matches the input pattern and use Regex.Matches to extract all the possible inputs:

var funcArgRE = new Regex(@"\[(.),(.),(\d+)\]", RegexOptions.Compiled);

foreach (Match match in funcArgRE.Matches(input)) {
    var g = match.Groups;
    f.MyFunction(g[1].Value[0], g[2].Value[0], Int32.Parse(g[3].Value));
}