Regular Expressions + Including one space in pattern
Question
I'm trying to figure out how to write a pattern to match to the following: "3Z 5Z". The numbers in this can vary, but the Z's are constant. The issue I'm having is trying to include the white space... Currently I have this as my pattern
pattern = @"\b*Z\s*Z\b";
The '*' represent the wildcard for the number preceding the "Z", but it doesn't seem to want to work with the space in it. For example, I can use the following pattern successfully for matching to the same thing without the space (i.e. 3Z5Z)
pattern = @"\b*Z*Z\b";
I am writing this program in .NET 4.0 (C#). Any help is much appreciated!
EDIT: This pattern is part of a larger string, for example: 3Z 10Z lock 425"
Solution
Try this:
pattern = @"\b\d+Z\s+\d+Z\b";
Explanation:
"
\b # Assert position at a word boundary
\d # Match a single digit 0..9
+ # Between one and unlimited times, as many times as possible, giving back as needed (greedy)
Z # Match the character “Z” literally
\s # Match a single character that is a “whitespace character” (spaces, tabs, line breaks, etc.)
+ # Between one and unlimited times, as many times as possible, giving back as needed (greedy)
\d # Match a single digit 0..9
+ # Between one and unlimited times, as many times as possible, giving back as needed (greedy)
Z # Match the character “Z” literally
\b # Assert position at a word boundary
"
By the way:
\b*
Should throw an exception. \b
is a word anchor. You can't quantify it.
OTHER TIPS
Try this code.
using System;
using System.Text.RegularExpressions;
namespace ConsoleApplication1
{
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
string txt="3Z 5Z";
string re1="(\\d+)"; // Integer Number 1
string re2="(Z)"; // Any Single Character 1
string re3="( )"; // Any Single Character 2
string re4="(\\d+)"; // Integer Number 2
string re5="(Z)"; // Any Single Character 3
Regex r = new Regex(re1+re2+re3+re4+re5,RegexOptions.IgnoreCase|RegexOptions.Singleline);
Match m = r.Match(txt);
if (m.Success)
{
String int1=m.Groups[1].ToString();
String c1=m.Groups[2].ToString();
String c2=m.Groups[3].ToString();
String int2=m.Groups[4].ToString();
String c3=m.Groups[5].ToString();
Console.Write("("+int1.ToString()+")"+"("+c1.ToString()+")"+"("+c2.ToString()+")"+"("+int2.ToString()+")"+"("+c3.ToString()+")"+"\n");
}
Console.ReadLine();
}
}
}
I addition to other posts I would add characters of the Begin and End of string.
patter = "^\d+Z\s\d+Z$"