Split string by char, but skip certain char combinations

Question

Say I have a string in a form similar to this:

"First/Second//Third/Fourth" (notice the double slash between Second and Third)

I want to be able to split this string into the following substrings "First", "Second//Third", "Fourth". Basically, what I want is to split the string by a char (in this case /), but not by double of that char (in this case //). I though of this in a number of ways, but couldn't get it working.

I can use a solution in C# and/or JavaScript.

Thanks!

Edit: I would like a simple solution. I have already thought of parsing the string char by char, but that is too complicated in my real live usage.

Answer 1

Try with this C# solution, it uses positive lookbehind and positive lookahead:

        string s = @"First/Second//Third/Fourth";
        var values = Regex.Split(s, @"(?<=[^/])/(?=[^/])", RegexOptions.None);

It says: delimiter is / which is preceded by any character except / and followed by any character except /.

Here is another, shorter, version that uses negative lookbehind and lookahead:

        var values = Regex.Split(s, @"(?<!/)/(?!/)", RegexOptions.None);

This says: delimiter is / which is not preceded by / and not followed by /

You can find out more about 'lookarounds' here.

Answer 2

In .NET Regex you can do it with negative assertions.(?<!/)/(?!/) will work. Use Regex.Split method.