Regular Expression to split on spaces unless in quotes

Question

I would like to use the .Net Regex.Split method to split this input string into an array. It must split on whitespace unless it is enclosed in a quote.

Input: Here is "my string"    it has "six  matches"

Expected output:

1. Here
2. is
3. my string
4. it
5. has
6. six  matches

What pattern do I need? Also do I need to specify any RegexOptions?

Answer 1

No options required

Regex:

\w+|"[\w\s]*" 

C#:

Regex regex = new Regex(@"\w+|""[\w\s]*"""); 

Or if you need to exclude " characters:

    Regex         .Matches(input, @"(?<match>\w+)|\""(?<match>[\w\s]*)""")         .Cast<Match>()         .Select(m => m.Groups["match"].Value)         .ToList()         .ForEach(s => Console.WriteLine(s));