Extract String Within Parenthesis

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October 28th, 2008, 05:56 PM

Samuel Adams

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Extract String Within Parenthesis

I have the following string of characters in the body of an email:

(name)This is a line.

I want to extract the "name" from the parens. What is the easiest way to go about this? The characters in parens are always going to be alpha, no numbers.

October 29th, 2008, 03:02 AM

requinix

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The "easiest way to go about" it depends on the language.

You're posting in the regex forum so I can only assume you're looking for a regex answer.

Code:

/\([a-z]+\)/

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October 29th, 2008, 10:48 AM

Samuel Adams

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I'm using VBScript and it didn't seem to like the above regex very much. Below is a code snippet that is taking what is in parenthesis:

Code:

Set objRegEx = CreateObject("VBScript.RegExp")
Set objRegEx2 = CreateObject("VBScript.RegExp")
strTest="(Word)This is a test"

objRegEx.Pattern = "([A-Z][a-z]*)"
Set colMatches = objRegEx.Execute(strTest)
If colMatches.Count > 0 Then
        For Each strMatch In colMatches
            MsgBox strMatch
        Next
End If

My problem now? I want to take everything AFTER the word in parens (so "This is a test"). I tried:

Code:

objRegEx.Pattern = "[^([A-Z][a-z]*)]"
Set colMatches = objRegEx.Execute(strTest)
If colMatches.Count > 0 Then
        For Each strMatch In colMatches
            MsgBox strMatch
        Next
End If

To no avail... any advice?

October 29th, 2008, 11:21 AM

jesh

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I don't know VBScript too well these days so forgive me any errors that I might include in regards to that, but I think the following might help:

Code:

Set objRegEx = CreateObject("VBScript.RegExp")
objRegEx.IgnoreCase = True
objRegEx.Pattern = "\(([a-z]+?)\)(.+)"

strTest="(Word)This is a test"

Set colMatches = objRegEx.Execute(strTest)

If colMatches.Count == 2 Then
    wordInParens = colMatches(0)
    wordOutsideParens = colMatches(1)
End If

Extract String Within Parenthesis

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