C# Regex to match name and email from header

Question

I have this Regex @"/([^<]+)\s<(.*)>/" to match the name and email address from this string in C#:

John Doe <john.doe@gmail.com>

If I use Regex.Match("John Doe <john.doe@gmail.com>", @"/([^<]+)\s<(.*)>/") what is the property of the result that returns both the name and email address in a collection? I looked at Groups and Captures but neither returns the correct result.

Thanks.

Groups[1].Value is the name and Groups[2].Value is the email — Gusman, Feb 26 '16 at 15:12

score 4 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 11:50

You need to remove the regex delimiters first. See this post explaining that issue.

var match = Regex.Match("John Doe <john.doe@gmail.com>", @"([^<]+)\s<(.*)>");

Then, you can get the name and email via match.Groups[1].Value and match.Groups[2].Value respectively.

However, best is to use named capture groups:

var match = Regex.Match("John Doe <john.doe@gmail.com>", @"(?<name>[^<]+)\s<(?<mail>.*)>");

Then, you can access these values with match.Groups["name"].Value and match.Groups["mail"].Value.

And one more note on the pattern: if the email does not contain > nor <, I'd advise to also use a negated character class [^<>] there (matching any character but < and >):

(?<name>[^<]+)\s<(?<mail>[^<>]*)>

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 26 '16 at 15:18

3

Alternative:

var m = new System.Net.Mail.MailAddress(@"John Doe <john.doe@gmail.com>");

Console.WriteLine(m.DisplayName);
Console.WriteLine(m.Address);

answered Feb 26 '16 at 15:18

Alex K.

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this is better way than regex – Ehsan Sajjad Feb 26 '16 at 15:19
Thanks but would this cater for the different address formats in section 3.4 of RFC 2822? – Klaus Nji Feb 26 '16 at 15:21

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 26 '16 at 15:16

You can name your capturing groups:

(?<name>[^<]+)\s<(?<email>.*)>

Then you can use it like this:

var match = Regex.Match("John Doe <john.doe@gmail.com>", @"(?<name>[^<]+)\s<(?<email>.*)>");

var name = match.Groups["name"];
var email = match.Groups["email"];

C# Regex to match name and email from header

3 Answers3