Extract values from a string into arrays

Question

I have a string like this:

john "is my best buddy" and he loves "strawberry juice"

I want to-

• Extract texts within double-quotes into a string array array1
• Split texts outside of double-quotes by spaces and then insert them into another string array (array2).

Output:

array1[0]: is my best buddy

array1[1]: strawberry juice

array2[0]: john

array2[1]: and

array2[2]: he

array2[3]: loves

Any help is appreciated.

Answer 1

Clearly, this is a call for Regular Expressions:

var str = @"john ""is my best buddy"" and he loves ""strawberry juice""";

var regex = new Regex("(\"(?'quoted'[^\"]+)\")|(?'word'\\w+)",
                   RegexOptions.Singleline|RegexOptions.Compiled);

var matches = regex.Matches(str);

var quotes = matches.Cast<Match>()
                    .SelectMany(m => m.Groups.Cast<Group>())
                    .Where(g => g.Name == "quoted" && g.Success)
                    .Select(g => g.Value)
                    .ToArray();

var words = matches.Cast<Match>()
                    .SelectMany(m => m.Groups.Cast<Group>())
                    .Where(g => g.Name == "word" && g.Success)
                    .Select(g => g.Value)
                    .ToArray();