Binaryworld - SplitQuoted - A split variant that deals correctly with quoted element ... [ VB.net -> String ]

' split a string, dealing correctly with quoted items
'
' TEXT is the string to be split
' SEPARATOR is the separator char (default is comma)
' QUOTES is the character used to quote strings (default is """",
' the double quote)
'  you can also use a character pair (eg "{}") if the opening
'  and closing quotes are different
'
' for example you can split the following string
'   arr() = SplitQuoted("[one,two],three,[four,five]", , "[]")
' into 3 items, because commas inside []
' are not taken into account

Function SplitQuoted(ByVal Text As String, Optional ByVal Separator As String = _
  ",", Optional ByVal Quotes As String = """") As ArrayList
  ' this is the result
  Dim res As New ArrayList()
  ' get the open and close chars, escape them for using in regular expressions
  Dim openChar As String = System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.Escape _
    (Quotes.Chars(0))
  Dim closeChar As String = System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.Escape _
    (Quotes.Chars(Quotes.Length - 1))
  ' build the patter that searches for both quoted and unquoted elements
  ' notice that the quoted element is defined by group #2
  ' and the unquoted element is defined by group #3
  Dim pattern As String = "\s*(" & openChar & "([^" & closeChar & "]*)" & _
    closeChar & "|([^" & Separator & "]+))\s*"

  ' search all the elements
  Dim m As System.Text.RegularExpressions.Match
  For Each m In System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.Matches(Text, pattern)
    ' get a reference to the unquoted element, if it's there
    Dim g3 As String = m.Groups(3).Value
    If Not (g3 Is Nothing) AndAlso g3.Length > 0 Then
      ' if the 3rd group is not null, then the element wasn't quoted
      res.Add(g3)
    Else
      ' get the quoted string, but without the quotes
      res.Add(m.Groups(2).Value)
    End If
  Next
  Return res
End Function