Develop Reference

Method that takes a message and index, creates a substring using the index

Problem: I want to write a method that takes a message/index pair like this:
("Hello, I am *Name1, how are you doing *Name2?", 2)
The index refers to the asterisk delimited name in the message. So if the index is 1, it should refer to *Name1, if it's 2 it should refer to *Name2.
The method should return just the name with the asterisk (*Name2).
I have attempted to play around with substrings, taking the first delimited * and ending when we reach a character that isn't a letter, number, underscore or hyphen, but the logic just isn't setting in.
I know this is similar to a few problems on SO but I can't find anything this specific. Any help is appreciated.
This is what's left of my very vague attempt so far. Based on this thread:
public string GetIndexedNames(string message, int index)
{
int strStart = message.IndexOf("#") + "#".Length;
int strEnd = message.LastIndexOf(" ");
String result = message.Substring(strStart, strEnd - strStart);
}

If you want to do it the old school way, then something like:
public static void Main(string[] args)
{
string message = "Hello, I am *Name1, how are you doing *Name2?";
string name1 = GetIndexedNames(message, "*", 1);
string name2 = GetIndexedNames(message, "*", 2);
Console.WriteLine(message);
Console.WriteLine(name1);
Console.WriteLine(name2);
Console.ReadLine();
}
public static string GetIndexedNames(string message, string singleCharDelimiter, int index)
{
string valid = "abcdefghijlmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789_-";
string[] parts = message.Split(singleCharDelimiter.ToArray());
if (parts.Length >= index)
{
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
for(int i = 0; i < parts[index].Length; i++)
{
string character = parts[index].Substring(i, 1);
if (valid.Contains(character))
{
sb.Append(character);
}
else
{
return sb.ToString();
}
}
return sb.ToString();
}
return "";
}

You can try using regular expressions to match the names. Assuming that name is a sequence of word characters (letters or digits):
using System.Linq;
using System.Text.RegularExpressions;
...
// Either name with asterisk *Name or null
// index is 1-based
private static ObtainName(string source, int index) => Regex
.Matches(source, #"\*\w+")
.Cast<Match>()
.Select(match => match.Value)
.Distinct() // in case the same name repeats several times
.ElementAtOrDefault(index - 1);
Demo:
string name = ObtainName(
"Hello, I am *Name1, how are you doing *Name2?", 2);
Console.Write(name);
Outcome:
*Name2

Perhaps not the most elegant solution, but if you want to use IndexOf, use a loop:
public static string GetIndexedNames(string message, int index, char marker='*')
{
int lastFound = 0;
for (int i = 0; i < index; i++) {
lastFound = message.IndexOf(marker, lastFound+1);
if (lastFound == -1) return null;
}
var space = message.IndexOf(' ', lastFound);
return space == -1 ? message.Substring(lastFound) : message.Substring(lastFound, space - lastFound);
}

Replacing character after single quote

I am using the following C# code to modify a lowercase letter to uppercase after a single quote:
public virtual string FirstName
{
get { return _firstName; }
set
{
if (value != null)
{
int pos = value.IndexOf("'", 0);
int strlength = value.Length - 1;
if (pos >= 0 && pos != strlength)
{
string temp = value[pos + 1].ToString();
temp = temp.ToUpper();
value = value.Remove(pos + 1, 1);
value = value.Insert(pos + 1, temp);
}
}
}
}
To me this looks like overkill. Is there an easier way to achieve the desired result:
Value: Mc'donald
Expected: Mc'Donald

here is without regex
int pos = data.IndexOf("'");
if (pos >= 0 && pos < data.Length - 1)
{
StringBuilder sbl = new StringBuilder(data);
sbl[pos + 1] = char.ToUpper(sbl[pos + 1]);
data = sbl.ToString();
}

Since you're open to Regex, would this overload of the Regex.Replace do what you need?
Regex.Replace Method (String, MatchEvaluator)
Here's a modified version of the example given at the link above. I've changed it to use the '\w pattern and to return the match in upper case.
using System;
using System.Text.RegularExpressions;
class RegExSample
{
static string CapText(Match m)
{
// Return the match in upper case
return m.ToString().ToUpperInvariant();
}
static void Main()
{
string text = "Mc'donald";
System.Console.WriteLine("text=[" + text + "]");
Regex rx = new Regex(#"'\w");
string result = rx.Replace(text, new MatchEvaluator(RegExSample.CapText));
System.Console.WriteLine("result=[" + result + "]");
}
}

Perhaps regular expressions?
string value = "Mc'donald";
string found = Regex.Match(value, "'[\\w]").Value;
string result = value.Replace(found, found.ToUpper());
Console.WriteLine(result); // Mc'Donald

How can I search through a string in C# and replace areas bounded by a pattern?

We tried a few solutions now that try and use XML parsers. All fail because the strings are not always 100% valid XML. Here's our problem.
We have strings that look like this:
var a = "this is a testxxx of my data yxxx and of these xxx parts yxxx";
var b = "hello testxxx world yxxx ";
"this is a testxxx3yxxx and of these xxx1yxxx";
"hello testxxx1yxxx ";
The key here is that we want to do something to the data between xxx and yxxx. In the example above I would need a function that counts words and replaces the strings with a word count.
Is there a way we can process the string a and apply a function to change the data that's between the xxx and yxxx? Any function right now as we're just trying to get an idea of how to code this.

You can use Split method:
var parts = a.Split(new[] {"xxx", "yxxx"}, StringSplitOptions.None)
.Select((s, index) =>
{
string s1 = index%2 == 1 ? string.Format("{0}{2}{1}", "xxx", "yxxx", s + "1") : s;
return s1;
});
var result = string.Join("", parts);

If it always going to xxx and yxxx, you can use regex as suggested.
var stringBuilder = new StringBuilder();
Regex regex = new Regex("xxx(.*?)yxxx");
var splitGroups = Regex.Match(a);
foreach(var group in splitGroups)
{
var value = splitGroupsCopy[i];
// do something to value and then append it to string builder
stringBuilder.Append(string.Format("{0}{1}{2}", "xxx", value, "yxxx"));
}
I suppose this is as basic as it gets.

Using Regex.Replace will replace all the matches with your choice of text, something like this:
Regex rgx = new Regex("xxx.+yxxx");
string cleaned = rgx.Replace(a, "replacementtext");

This code will process each of the parts delimited by "xxx". It preserves the "xxx" separators. If you do not want to preserve the "xxx" separators, remove the two lines that say "result.Append(separator);".
Given:
"this is a testxxx of my data yxxx and there are many of these xxx parts yxxx"
It prints:
"this is a testxxx>> of my data y<<xxx and there are many of these xxx>> parts y<<xxx"
I'm assuming that's the kind of thing you want. Add your own processing to "processPart()".
using System;
using System.Text;
namespace ConsoleApplication1
{
internal class Program
{
private static void Main(string[] args)
{
string text = "this is a testxxx of my data yxxx and there are many of these xxx parts yxxx";
string separator = "xxx";
var result = new StringBuilder();
int index = 0;
while (true)
{
int start = text.IndexOf(separator, index);
if (start < 0)
{
result.Append(text.Substring(index));
break;
}
result.Append(text.Substring(index, start - index));
int end = text.IndexOf(separator, start + separator.Length);
if (end < 0)
{
throw new InvalidOperationException("Unbalanced separators.");
}
start += separator.Length;
result.Append(separator);
result.Append(processPart(text.Substring(start, end-start)));
result.Append(separator);
index = end + separator.Length;
}
Console.WriteLine(result);
}
private static string processPart(string part)
{
return ">>" + part + "<<";
}
}
}
[EDIT] Here's the code amended to work with two different separators:
using System;
using System.Text;
namespace ConsoleApplication1
{
internal class Program
{
private static void Main(string[] args)
{
string text = "this is a test<pre> of my data y</pre> and there are many of these <pre> parts y</pre>";
string separator1 = "<pre>";
string separator2 = "</pre>";
var result = new StringBuilder();
int index = 0;
while (true)
{
int start = text.IndexOf(separator1, index);
if (start < 0)
{
result.Append(text.Substring(index));
break;
}
result.Append(text.Substring(index, start - index));
int end = text.IndexOf(separator2, start + separator1.Length);
if (end < 0)
{
throw new InvalidOperationException("Unbalanced separators.");
}
start += separator1.Length;
result.Append(separator1);
result.Append(processPart(text.Substring(start, end-start)));
result.Append(separator2);
index = end + separator2.Length;
}
Console.WriteLine(result);
}
private static string processPart(string part)
{
return "|" + part + "|";
}
}
}

The indexOf() function will return to you the index of the first occurrence of a given substring.
(My indices might be a bit off, but) I would suggest doing something like this:
var searchme = "this is a testxxx of my data yxxx and there are many of these xxx parts yxxx";
var startindex= searchme.indexOf("xxx");
var endindex = searchme.indexOf("yxxx") + 3; //added 3 to find the index of the last 'x' instead of the index of the 'y' character
var stringpiece = searchme.substring(startindex, endindex - startindex);
and you can repeat that while startindex != -1
Like I said, the indices might be slightly off, you might have to add a +1 or -1 somewhere, but this will get you along nicely (I think).
Here is a little sample program that counts chars instead of words. But you should just need to change the processor function.
var a = "this is a testxxx of my data yxxx and there are many of these xxx parts yxxx";
a = ProcessString(a, CountChars);
string CountChars(string a)
{
return a.Length.ToString();
}
string ProcessString(string a, Func<string, string> processor)
{
int idx_start, idx_end = -4;
while ((idx_start = a.IndexOf("xxx", idx_end + 4)) >= 0)
{
idx_end = a.IndexOf("yxxx", idx_start + 3);
if (idx_end < 0)
break;
var string_in_between = a.Substring(idx_start + 3, idx_end - idx_start - 3);
var newString = processor(string_in_between);
a = a.Substring(0, idx_start + 3) + newString + a.Substring(idx_end, a.Length - idx_end);
idx_end -= string_in_between.Length - newString.Length;
}
return a;
}

I would use Regex Groups:
Here my solution to get the parts in the string:
private static IEnumerable<string> GetParts( string searchFor, string begin, string end ) {
string exp = string.Format("({0}(?<searchedPart>.+?){1})+", begin, end);
Regex regex = new Regex(exp);
MatchCollection matchCollection = regex.Matches(searchFor);
foreach (Match match in matchCollection) {
Group #group = match.Groups["searchedPart"];
yield return #group.ToString();
}
}
you can use it like to get the parts:
string a = "this is a testxxx of my data yxxx and there are many of these xxx parts yxxx";
IEnumerable<string> parts = GetParts(a, "xxx", "yxxx");
To replace the parts in the original String you can use the Regex Group to determine Length and StartPosition (#group.Index, #group.Length).

How to insert/remove hyphen to/from a plain string in c#?

I have a string like this;
string text = "6A7FEBFCCC51268FBFF";
And I have one method for which I want to insert the logic for appending the hyphen after 4 characters to 'text' variable. So, the output should be like this;
6A7F-EBFC-CC51-268F-BFF
Appending hyphen to above 'text' variable logic should be inside this method;
public void GetResultsWithHyphen
{
// append hyphen after 4 characters logic goes here
}
And I want also remove the hyphen from a given string such as 6A7F-EBFC-CC51-268F-BFF. So, removing hyphen from a string logic should be inside this method;
public void GetResultsWithOutHyphen
{
// Removing hyphen after 4 characters logic goes here
}
How can I do this in C# (for desktop app)?
What is the best way to do this?
Appreciate everyone's answer in advance.

GetResultsWithOutHyphen is easy (and should return a string instead of void
public string GetResultsWithOutHyphen(string input)
{
// Removing hyphen after 4 characters logic goes here
return input.Replace("-", "");
}
for GetResultsWithHyphen, there may be slicker ways to do it, but here's one way:
public string GetResultsWithHyphen(string input)
{
// append hyphen after 4 characters logic goes here
string output = "";
int start = 0;
while (start < input.Length)
{
output += input.Substring(start, Math.Min(4,input.Length - start)) + "-";
start += 4;
}
// remove the trailing dash
return output.Trim('-');
}

Use regex:
public String GetResultsWithHyphen(String inputString)
{
return Regex.Replace(inputString, #"(\w{4})(\w{4})(\w{4})(\w{4})(\w{3})",
#"$1-$2-$3-$4-$5");
}
and for removal:
public String GetResultsWithOutHyphen(String inputString)
{
return inputString.Replace("-", "");
}

Here's the shortest regex I could come up with. It will work on strings of any length. Note that the \B token will prevent it from matching at the end of a string, so you don't have to trim off an extra hyphen as with some answers above.
using System;
using System.Text.RegularExpressions;
namespace ConsoleApplication2
{
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
string text = "6A7FEBFCCC51268FBFF";
for (int i = 0; i <= text.Length;i++ )
Console.WriteLine(hyphenate(text.Substring(0, i)));
}
static string hyphenate(string s)
{
var re = new Regex(#"(\w{4}\B)");
return re.Replace (s, "$1-");
}
static string dehyphenate (string s)
{
return s.Replace("-", "");
}
}
}

var hyphenText = new string(
text
.SelectMany((i, ch) => i%4 == 3 && i != text.Length-1 ? new[]{ch, '-'} : new[]{ch})
.ToArray()
)

something along the lines of:
public string GetResultsWithHyphen(string inText)
{
var counter = 0;
var outString = string.Empty;
while (counter < inText.Length)
{
if (counter % 4 == 0)
outString = string.Format("{0}-{1}", outString, inText.Substring(counter, 1));
else
outString += inText.Substring(counter, 1);
counter++;
}
return outString;
}
This is rough code and may not be perfectly, syntactically correct

public static string GetResultsWithHyphen(string str) {
return Regex.Replace(str, "(.{4})", "$1-");
//if you don't want trailing -
//return Regex.Replace(str, "(.{4})(?!$)", "$1-");
}
public static string GetResultsWithOutHyphen(string str) {
//if you just want to remove the hyphens:
//return input.Replace("-", "");
//if you REALLY want to remove hyphens only if they occur after 4 places:
return Regex.Replace(str, "(.{4})-", "$1");
}

For removing:
String textHyphenRemoved=text.Replace('-',''); should remove all of the hyphens
for adding
StringBuilder strBuilder = new StringBuilder();
int startPos = 0;
for (int i = 0; i < text.Length / 4; i++)
{
startPos = i * 4;
strBuilder.Append(text.Substring(startPos,4));
//if it isn't the end of the string add a hyphen
if(text.Length-startPos!=4)
strBuilder.Append("-");
}
//add what is left
strBuilder.Append(text.Substring(startPos, 4));
string textWithHyphens = strBuilder.ToString();
Do note that my adding code is untested.

GetResultsWithOutHyphen method
public string GetResultsWithOutHyphen(string input)
{
return input.Replace("-", "");
}
GetResultsWithOutHyphen method
You could pass a variable instead of four for flexibility.
public string GetResultsWithHyphen(string input)
{
string output = "";
int start = 0;
while (start < input.Length)
{
char bla = input[start];
output += bla;
start += 1;
if (start % 4 == 0)
{
output += "-";
}
}
return output;
}

This worked for me when I had a value for a social security number (123456789) and needed it to display as (123-45-6789) in a listbox.
ListBox1.Items.Add("SS Number : " & vbTab & Format(SSNArray(i), "###-##-####"))
In this case I had an array of Social Security Numbers. This line of code alters the formatting to put a hyphen in.

Callee
public static void Main()
{
var text = new Text("THISisJUSTanEXAMPLEtext");
var convertText = text.Convert();
Console.WriteLine(convertText);
}
Caller
public class Text
{
private string _text;
private int _jumpNo = 4;
public Text(string text)
{
_text = text;
}
public Text(string text, int jumpNo)
{
_text = text;
_jumpNo = jumpNo < 1 ? _jumpNo : jumpNo;
}
public string Convert()
{
if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(_text))
{
return string.Empty;
}
if (_text.Length < _jumpNo)
{
return _text;
}
var convertText = _text.Substring(0, _jumpNo);
int start = _jumpNo;
while (start < _text.Length)
{
convertText += "-" + _text.Substring(start, Math.Min(_jumpNo, _text.Length - start));
start += _jumpNo;
}
return convertText;
}
}

Find text in string with C#

How can I find given text within a string? After that, I'd like to create a new string between that and something else. For instance, if the string was:
This is an example string and my data is here
And I want to create a string with whatever is between "my " and " is" how could I do that? This is pretty pseudo, but hopefully it makes sense.

Use this method:
public static string getBetween(string strSource, string strStart, string strEnd)
{
if (strSource.Contains(strStart) && strSource.Contains(strEnd))
{
int Start, End;
Start = strSource.IndexOf(strStart, 0) + strStart.Length;
End = strSource.IndexOf(strEnd, Start);
return strSource.Substring(Start, End - Start);
}
return "";
}
How to use it:
string source = "This is an example string and my data is here";
string data = getBetween(source, "my", "is");

This is the simplest way:
if(str.Contains("hello"))

You could use Regex:
var regex = new Regex(".*my (.*) is.*");
if (regex.IsMatch("This is an example string and my data is here"))
{
var myCapturedText = regex.Match("This is an example string and my data is here").Groups[1].Value;
Console.WriteLine("This is my captured text: {0}", myCapturedText);
}

string string1 = "This is an example string and my data is here";
string toFind1 = "my";
string toFind2 = "is";
int start = string1.IndexOf(toFind1) + toFind1.Length;
int end = string1.IndexOf(toFind2, start); //Start after the index of 'my' since 'is' appears twice
string string2 = string1.Substring(start, end - start);

Here's my function using Oscar Jara's function as a model.
public static string getBetween(string strSource, string strStart, string strEnd) {
const int kNotFound = -1;
var startIdx = strSource.IndexOf(strStart);
if (startIdx != kNotFound) {
startIdx += strStart.Length;
var endIdx = strSource.IndexOf(strEnd, startIdx);
if (endIdx > startIdx) {
return strSource.Substring(startIdx, endIdx - startIdx);
}
}
return String.Empty;
}
This version does at most two searches of the text. It avoids an exception thrown by Oscar's version when searching for an end string that only occurs before the start string, i.e., getBetween(text, "my", "and");.
Usage is the same:
string text = "This is an example string and my data is here";
string data = getBetween(text, "my", "is");

You can do it compactly like this:
string abc = abc.Replace(abc.Substring(abc.IndexOf("me"), (abc.IndexOf("is", abc.IndexOf("me")) + 1) - abc.IndexOf("size")), string.Empty);

Except for #Prashant's answer, the above answers have been answered incorrectly. Where is the "replace" feature of the answer? The OP asked, "After that, I'd like to create a new string between that and something else".
Based on #Oscar's excellent response, I have expanded his function to be a "Search And Replace" function in one.
I think #Prashant's answer should have been the accepted answer by the OP, as it does a replace.
Anyway, I've called my variant - ReplaceBetween().
public static string ReplaceBetween(string strSource, string strStart, string strEnd, string strReplace)
{
int Start, End;
if (strSource.Contains(strStart) && strSource.Contains(strEnd))
{
Start = strSource.IndexOf(strStart, 0) + strStart.Length;
End = strSource.IndexOf(strEnd, Start);
string strToReplace = strSource.Substring(Start, End - Start);
string newString = strSource.Concat(Start,strReplace,End - Start);
return newString;
}
else
{
return string.Empty;
}
}

static void Main(string[] args)
{
int f = 0;
Console.WriteLine("enter the string");
string s = Console.ReadLine();
Console.WriteLine("enter the word to be searched");
string a = Console.ReadLine();
int l = s.Length;
int c = a.Length;
for (int i = 0; i < l; i++)
{
if (s[i] == a[0])
{
for (int K = i + 1, j = 1; j < c; j++, K++)
{
if (s[K] == a[j])
{
f++;
}
}
}
}
if (f == c - 1)
{
Console.WriteLine("matching");
}
else
{
Console.WriteLine("not found");
}
Console.ReadLine();
}

string WordInBetween(string sentence, string wordOne, string wordTwo)
{
int start = sentence.IndexOf(wordOne) + wordOne.Length + 1;
int end = sentence.IndexOf(wordTwo) - start - 1;
return sentence.Substring(start, end);
}

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using System.Threading;
using System.Diagnostics;
namespace oops3
{
public class Demo
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
Console.WriteLine("Enter the string");
string x = Console.ReadLine();
Console.WriteLine("enter the string to be searched");
string SearchText = Console.ReadLine();
string[] myarr = new string[30];
myarr = x.Split(' ');
int i = 0;
foreach(string s in myarr)
{
i = i + 1;
if (s==SearchText)
{
Console.WriteLine("The string found at position:" + i);
}
}
Console.ReadLine();
}
}
}

This is the correct way to replace a portion of text inside a string (based upon the getBetween method by Oscar Jara):
public static string ReplaceTextBetween(string strSource, string strStart, string strEnd, string strReplace)
{
int Start, End, strSourceEnd;
if (strSource.Contains(strStart) && strSource.Contains(strEnd))
{
Start = strSource.IndexOf(strStart, 0) + strStart.Length;
End = strSource.IndexOf(strEnd, Start);
strSourceEnd = strSource.Length - 1;
string strToReplace = strSource.Substring(Start, End - Start);
string newString = string.Concat(strSource.Substring(0, Start), strReplace, strSource.Substring(Start + strToReplace.Length, strSourceEnd - Start));
return newString;
}
else
{
return string.Empty;
}
}
The string.Concat concatenates 3 strings:
The string source portion before the string to replace found - strSource.Substring(0, Start)
The replacing string - strReplace
The string source portion after the string to replace found - strSource.Substring(Start + strToReplace.Length, strSourceEnd - Start)

Simply add this code:
if (string.Contains("search_text")) {
MessageBox.Show("Message.");
}

If you know that you always want the string between "my" and "is", then you can always perform the following:
string message = "This is an example string and my data is here";
//Get the string position of the first word and add two (for it's length)
int pos1 = message.IndexOf("my") + 2;
//Get the string position of the next word, starting index being after the first position
int pos2 = message.IndexOf("is", pos1);
//use substring to obtain the information in between and store in a new string
string data = message.Substring(pos1, pos2 - pos1).Trim();

First find the index of text and then substring
var ind = Directory.GetCurrentDirectory().ToString().IndexOf("TEXT To find");
string productFolder = Directory.GetCurrentDirectory().ToString().Substring(0, ind);

I have different approach on ReplaceTextBetween() function.
public static string ReplaceTextBetween(this string strSource, string strStart, string strEnd, string strReplace)
{
if (strSource.Contains(strStart) && strSource.Contains(strEnd))
{
var startIndex = strSource.IndexOf(strStart, 0) + strStart.Length;
var endIndex = strSource.IndexOf(strEnd, startIndex);
var strSourceLength = strSource.Length;
var strToReplace = strSource.Substring(startIndex, endIndex - startIndex);
var concatStart = startIndex + strToReplace.Length;
var beforeReplaceStr = strSource.Substring(0, startIndex);
var afterReplaceStr = strSource.Substring(concatStart, strSourceLength - endIndex);
return string.Concat(beforeReplaceStr, strReplace, afterReplaceStr);
}
return strSource;
}

Correct answer here without using any pre-defined method.
static void WordContainsInString()
{
int f = 0;
Console.WriteLine("Input the string");
string str = Console.ReadLine();
Console.WriteLine("Input the word to search");
string word = Console.ReadLine();
int l = str.Length;
int c = word.Length;
for (int i = 0; i < l; i++)
{
if (str[i] == word[0])
{
for (int K = i + 1, j = 1; j < c; j++, K++)
{
if (str[K] == word[j])
{
f++;
}
else
{
f = 0;
}
}
}
}
if (f == c - 1)
{
Console.WriteLine("matching");
}
else
{
Console.WriteLine("not found");
}
Console.ReadLine();
}

for .net 6 can use next code
public static string? Crop(string? text, string? start, string? end = default)
{
if (text == null) return null;
string? result;
var startIndex = string.IsNullOrEmpty(start) ? 0 : text.IndexOf(start);
if (startIndex < 0) return null;
startIndex += start?.Length ?? 0;
if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(end))
{
result = text.Substring(startIndex);
}
else
{
var endIndex = text.IndexOf(end, startIndex);
if (endIndex < 0) return null;
result = text.Substring(startIndex, endIndex - startIndex);
}
return result;
}