c++ - Tricky substring problems -

i'm having problem substrings, have string in format below i'm using getline.

richard[12345/678910111213141516] murdered 

what have been using find_last_of , find_first_of positions in between brackets , forward slashes retrieve each field. have working , functional have ran problem. name field can 32 characters in length, , can contain / , [] when ran user url name did not that. numbers random on per user basis. i'm retrieving each field string, name , 2 identifying numbers.

another string can this, grabbing 6 total substrings.

richard[12345/678910111213141516] murdered ralph[54321/161514131211109876] 

which just huge mess, thinking doing starting , moving front, if second name field (ralph) contains / or [] going ruin count retrieving first part. insight helpful. thank you.

in nutshell. how account these.

names can contain alpha / numerical , special character.

richard///[][][12345/678910111213141516] murdered ralph[/[54321/161514131211109876] 

the end result 6 substrings containing this.

• richard///[][]
• 12345
• 678910111213141516
• ralph[/
• 54321
• 161514131211109876

regex has been mentioned me, don't know if better suited task or not, included tag more experienced might answer/comment.

here regex way obtain values:

string str = "richard///[][][12345/678910111213141516] murdered ralph[/[54321/161514131211109876]"; regex rgx1(r"(([a-z]\w*\s*\s*)\[(\d+)?(?:\/(\d+))?\])"); smatch smtch; while (regex_search(str, smtch, rgx1)) {         std::cout << "name: " << smtch[1] << std::endl;         std::cout << "id1: " << smtch[2] << std::endl;         std::cout << "id2: " << smtch[3] << std::endl;         str = smtch.suffix().str();     } 

see ideone demo

the regex (\s*)\[(\d+)?(?:/(\d+))?\] matches:

• (\s*) - (group 1) 0 or more non-whitespace symbols, as many possible.
• \[ - opening square bracket (must escaped special character in regex reserved character classes)
• (\d+)? - (group 2) 1 or more digits (optional group, can empty)
• (?:/(\d+))? - non-capturing optional group matching
  • / - literal /
  • (\d+) - (group 3) 1 or more digits.
• \] - closing square bracket.