C# RegEx - get only first match in string

Question

I've got an input string that looks like this:

level=<device[195].level>&name=<device[195].name>

I want to create a RegEx that will parse out each of the <device> tags, for example, I'd expect two items to be matched from my input string: <device[195].level> and <device[195].name>.

So far I've had some luck with this pattern and code, but it always finds both of the device tags as a single match:

var pattern = "<device\\[[0-9]*\\]\\.\\S*>";
Regex rgx = new Regex(pattern);
var matches = rgx.Matches(httpData);

The result is that matches will contain a single result with the value <device[195].level>&name=<device[195].name>

I'm guessing there must be a way to 'terminate' the pattern, but I'm not sure what it is.

Answer 1

Use non-greedy quantifiers:

<device\[\d+\]\.\S+?>

Also, use verbatim strings for escaping regexes, it makes them much more readable:

var pattern = @"<device\[\d+\]\.\S+?>";

As a side note, I guess in your case using \w instead of \S would be more in line with what you intended, but I left the \S because I can't know that.