string - Is there an equivalent to 'sscanf()' in .NET?

Question

The .NET Framework gives us the Format method:

string s = string.Format("This {0} very {1}.", "is", "funny");
// s is now: "This is very funny."

I would like an "Unformat" function, something like:

object[] params = string.Unformat("This {0} very {1}.", "This is very funny.");
// params is now: ["is", "funny"]

I know something similar exists in the ANSI-C library (printf vs scanf).

The question: is there something similiar in C#?

Update: Capturing groups with regular expressions are not the solution I need. They are also one way. I'm looking for a system that can work both ways in a single format. It's OK to give up some functionality (like types and formatting info).

Answer 1

There's no such method, probably because of problems resolving ambiguities:

string.Unformat("This {0} very {1}.", "This is very very funny.")
// are the parameters equal to "is" and "very funny", or "is very" and "funny"?

Regular expression capturing groups are made for this problem; you may want to look into them.