Here's an extension method that I have used extensively for this kind of thing
public static string SplitCamelCase( this string str )
{
return Regex.Replace(
Regex.Replace(
str,
@"(\P{Ll})(\P{Ll}\p{Ll})",
"$1 $2"
),
@"(\p{Ll})(\P{Ll})",
"$1 $2"
);
}
It also handles strings like IBMMakeStuffAndSellIt, converting it to IBM Make Stuff And Sell It (IIRC).
Syntax explanation (credit):
{Ll} is Unicode Character Category "Letter lowercase" (as opposed to {Lu} "Letter uppercase"). P is a negative match, while p is a positive match, so \P{Ll} is literally "Not lowercase" and p{Ll} is "Lowercase".
So this regex splits on two patterns. 1: "Uppercase, Uppercase, Lowercase" (which would match the MMa in IBMMake and result in IBM Make), and 2. "Lowercase, Uppercase" (which would match on the eS in MakeStuff). That covers all camelcase breakpoints.
TIP: Replace space with hyphen and call ToLower to produce HTML5 data attribute names.
/// <summary>
/// Parse the input string by placing a space between character case changes in the string
/// </summary>
/// <param name="strInput">The string to parse</param>
/// <returns>The altered string</returns>
public static string ParseByCase(string strInput)
{
// The altered string (with spaces between the case changes)
string strOutput = "";
// The index of the current character in the input string
int intCurrentCharPos = 0;
// The index of the last character in the input string
int intLastCharPos = strInput.Length - 1;
// for every character in the input string
for (intCurrentCharPos = 0; intCurrentCharPos <= intLastCharPos; intCurrentCharPos++)
{
// Get the current character from the input string
char chrCurrentInputChar = strInput[intCurrentCharPos];
// At first, set previous character to the current character in the input string
char chrPreviousInputChar = chrCurrentInputChar;
// If this is not the first character in the input string
if (intCurrentCharPos > 0)
{
// Get the previous character from the input string
chrPreviousInputChar = strInput[intCurrentCharPos - 1];
} // end if
// Put a space before each upper case character if the previous character is lower case
if (char.IsUpper(chrCurrentInputChar) == true && char.IsLower(chrPreviousInputChar) == true)
{
// Add a space to the output string
strOutput += " ";
} // end if
// Add the character from the input string to the output string
strOutput += chrCurrentInputChar;
} // next
// Return the altered string
return strOutput;
} // end method