Develop Reference

How to split a street address after the first number?

I'm not sure how to solve this but I need to split a string into 2 parts. Take the string below for example:
North Street 57A 1floor
I need to split this into 2 parts.
Part 1 "North Street 57" and part 2 "A 1floor"
But if the address is just "North Street 57" then I don't need to split the string at all, so the key here is to identify if the first occurrence of street number is only digits or a combination of digits and characters (57A)
I have a lot of different address names so the text can vary. Can this be achieved?

If you always want to split after the first occurrence of a number, you may use Regular Expression for that.
Here's a full example:
string input = "North Street 57A 1floor";
var regex = new Regex(#"(?<=\d)(?=\D)");
var parts = regex.Split(input, 2);
foreach (var part in parts)
Console.WriteLine(part);
Output:
North Street 57
A 1floor
The pattern (?<=\d)(?=\D) gets the position after a string of digits. Then, we use Regex.Split(string input, int count) where count=2 to ensure that it returns two parts at maximum.
Try it online.

Check if substring of a string exists in datatable

I have a DataTable like this:
column1 column2
----------- ----------
1 abc d Alpha
2 ab Gamma
3 abc de Harry
4 xyz Peter
I want to check if a substring of a string exists in the datatable.
e.g. If the string I am looking for is "abc defg", record 3 should be returned (although record 1 is also a match, record 3 has more common characters in sequence).
I am not able to find any way to search as described above.
any help, guidance would be much appreciated.

This would be a two-step process.
Filter the table for rows that match. This can be done with the string.Contains method. In LINQ, this would look something like:
const string myText = "abc defg";
IEnumerable<Row> matches = MyTable.Where(row => myText.Contains(row.Column1));
Select the longest match. In LINQ, this might look something like this.
Row longestMatch = matches.OrderByDescending<Row, int>(row => row.Column1.Length).First();

C# Regex Match Address - Mark groups optional

I need to parse a German address that I get in one string like "Example Street 5b". I want to split it in groups: Street, Number and Additional Information.
For example: address = Test Str. 5b
-> Street: "Test Str." Number: "5", Add.: "b"
My code looks like that:
string street = "";
string number = "";
string addition = "";
//this works:
string address = "Test Str. 5b";
//this doesn't match, but I want it in the street group:
//string address = "Test Str.";
Match adressMatch = Regex.Match(address, #"(?<street>.*?\.*)\s*(?<number>[1-9][0-9]*)\s*(?<addition>.*)");
street = adressMatch.Groups["street"].Value;
number = adressMatch.Groups["number"].Value;
addition = adressMatch.Groups["addition"].Value;
That code works well for the example and most other cases.
My problem:
If the adress does not contain a number, the function fails. I tried to add *? after the number group and several other things, but then the whole string got parsed into the "addition" and "street" and "number" remain empty. But if the number is missing, I want the string to parse into "street" and "number" and "addition" shall remain empty.
Thanks in advance :)

I would do it like this: I'd match the street into the street group, then match the number - if any - into the number group, and then the rest into the addition group.
Then, if the number group does not succeed, the addition value should be moved to the number group, which can be done easily within C# code.
So, use
(?<street>.*\.)(?:\s*(?<number>[1-9][0-9]*))?\s*(?<addition>.*)
^^ ^^ ^^
See the regex demo here (note the changes: the first .*? is turned greedy, the * quantifier after \. is removed, the number group is made optional together with the \s* in front).
Then, use this logic (C# sample snippet):
string street = "";
string number = "";
string addition = "";
//string address = "Test Str. 5b"; // => Test Str. | 5 | b
string address = "Test Str. b"; // => Test Str. | b |
Match adressMatch = Regex.Match(address, #"(?<street>.*\.)(?:\s*(?<number>[1-9][0-9]*))?\s*(?<addition>.*)");
if (adressMatch.Success) {
street = adressMatch.Groups["street"].Value;
addition = adressMatch.Groups["addition"].Value;
if (adressMatch.Groups["number"].Success)
number = adressMatch.Groups["number"].Value;
else
{
number = adressMatch.Groups["addition"].Value;
addition = string.Empty;
}
}
Console.WriteLine("Street: {0}\nNumber: {1}\nAddition: {2}", street, number, addition);

How to extract address components from a string?

I have a Xamarin Forms application that uses Xamarin. Mobile on the platforms to get the current location and then ascertain the current address. The address is returned in string format with line breaks.
The address can look like this:
111 Mandurah Tce
Mandurah WA 6210
Australia
or
The Glades
222 Mandurah Tce
Mandurah WA 6210
Australia
I have this code to break it down into the street address (including number), suburb, state and postcode (not very elegant, but it works)
string[] lines = address.Split(new string[] { Environment.NewLine }, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries);
List<string> addyList = new List<string>(lines);
int count = addyList.Count;
string lineToSplit = addyList.ElementAt(count - 2);
string[] splitLine = lineToSplit.Split(null);
List<string> splitList = new List<string>(splitLine);
string streetAddress = addyList.ElementAt (count - 3).ToString ();
string postCode = splitList.ElementAt(2);
string state = splitList.ElementAt(1);
string suburb = splitList.ElementAt(0);
I would like to extract the street number, and in the previous examples this would be easy, but what is the best way to do it, taking into account the number might be Lot 111 (only need to capture the 111, not the word LOT), or 123A or 8/123 - and sometimes something like 111-113 is also returned
I know that I can use regex and look for every possible combo, but is there an elegant built-in type solution, before I go writing any more messy code (and I know that the above code isn't particularly robust)?

These simple regular expressions will account for many types of address formats, but have you considered all the possible variations, such as:
PO Box 123 suburb state post_code
Unit, Apt, Flat, Villa, Shop X Y street name
7C/94 ALISON ROAD RANDWICK NSW 2031
and that is just to get the number. You will also have to deal with all the possible types of streets such as Lane, Road, Place, Av, Parkway.
Then there are street types such as:
12 Grand Ridge Road suburb_name
This could be interpreted as street = "Grand Ridge" and suburb = "Road suburb_name", as Ridge is also a valid street type.
I have done a lot of work in this area and found the huge number of valid address patterns meant simple regexs didn't solve the problem on large amounts of data.
I ended up develpping this parser http://search.cpan.org/~kimryan/Lingua-EN-AddressParse-1.20/lib/Lingua/EN/AddressParse.pm to solve the problem. It was originally written for Australian addresses so should work well for you.

Regex can capture the parts of a match into groups. Each parentheses () defines a group.
([^\d]*)(\d*)(.*)
For "Lot 222 Mandurah Tce" this returns the following groups
Group 0: "Lot 222 Mandurah Tce" (the input string)
Group 1: "Lot "
Group 2: "222"
Group 3: " Mandurah Tce"
Explanation:
[^\d]* Any number (including 0) of any character except digits.
\d* Any number (including 0) of digits.
.* Any number (including 0) of any character.
string input = "Lot 222 Mandurah Tce";
Match match = Regex.Match(input, #"([^\d]*)(\d*)(.*)");
string beforeNumber = match.Groups[1].Value; // --> "Lot "
string number = match.Groups[2].Value; // --> "222"
string afterNumber = match.Groups[3].Value; // --> " Mandurah Tce"
If a group finds no match, match.Groups[i] will return an empty string ("") for that group.

You could check if the content starts with a number for each entry in the splitLine.
string[] splitLine = lineToSplit.Split(addresseLine);
var streetNumber = string.empty;
foreach(var s in splitLine)
{
//Get the first digit value
if (Regex.IsMatch(s, #"^\d"))
{
streetNumber = s;
break;
}
}
//Deal with empty value another way
Console.WriteLine("My streetnumber is " + s)

Yea I think you have to identify what will work.
If:
it is always in the address line and it must always start with a Digit
nothing else in that line can start with a digit (or if something else does you know which always comes in what order, ie the code below will always work if the street number is always first)
you want every contiguous character to the digit that isn't whitespace (the - and \ examples suggest that to me)
Then it could be as simple as:
var regx = new Regex(#"(?:\s|^)\d[^\s]*");
var mtch = reg.Match(addressline);
You would sort of have to sift and see if any of those assumptions are broken.

What's the difference between "groups" and "captures" in .NET regular expressions?

I'm a little fuzzy on what the difference between a "group" and a "capture" are when it comes to .NET's regular expression language. Consider the following C# code:
MatchCollection matches = Regex.Matches("{Q}", #"^\{([A-Z])\}$");
I expect this to result in a single capture for the letter 'Q', but if I print the properties of the returned MatchCollection, I see:
matches.Count: 1
matches[0].Value: {Q}
matches[0].Captures.Count: 1
matches[0].Captures[0].Value: {Q}
matches[0].Groups.Count: 2
matches[0].Groups[0].Value: {Q}
matches[0].Groups[0].Captures.Count: 1
matches[0].Groups[0].Captures[0].Value: {Q}
matches[0].Groups[1].Value: Q
matches[0].Groups[1].Captures.Count: 1
matches[0].Groups[1].Captures[0].Value: Q
What exactly is going on here? I understand that there's also a capture for the entire match, but how do the groups come in? And why doesn't matches[0].Captures include the capture for the letter 'Q'?

You won't be the first who's fuzzy about it. Here's what the famous Jeffrey Friedl has to say about it (pages 437+):
Depending on your view, it either adds
an interesting new dimension to the
match results, or adds confusion and
bloat.
And further on:
The main difference between a Group
object and a Capture object is that
each Group object contains a
collection of Captures representing
all the intermediary matches by the
group during the match, as well as the
final text matched by the group.
And a few pages later, this is his conclusion:
After getting past the .NET
documentation and actually
understanding what these objects add,
I've got mixed feelings about them. On
one hand, it's an interesting
innovation [..] on the other hand, it
seems to add an efficiency burden [..]
of a functionality that won't be used
in the majority of cases
In other words: they are very similar, but occasionally and as it happens, you'll find a use for them. Before you grow another grey beard, you may even get fond of the Captures...
Since neither the above, nor what's said in the other post really seems to answer your question, consider the following. Think of Captures as a kind of history tracker. When the regex makes his match, it goes through the string from left to right (ignoring backtracking for a moment) and when it encounters a matching capturing parentheses, it will store that in $x (x being any digit), let's say $1.
Normal regex engines, when the capturing parentheses are to be repeated, will throw away the current $1 and will replace it with the new value. Not .NET, which will keep this history and places it in Captures[0].
If we change your regex to look as follows:
MatchCollection matches = Regex.Matches("{Q}{R}{S}", #"(\{[A-Z]\})+");
you will notice that the first Group will have one Captures (the first group always being the whole match, i.e., equal to $0) and the second group will hold {S}, i.e. only the last matching group. However, and here's the catch, if you want to find the other two catches, they're in Captures, which contains all intermediary captures for {Q} {R} and {S}.
If you ever wondered how you could get from the multiple-capture, which only shows last match to the individual captures that are clearly there in the string, you must use Captures.
A final word on your final question: the total match always has one total Capture, don't mix that with the individual Groups. Captures are only interesting inside groups.

This can be explained with a simple example (and pictures).
Matching 3:10pm with the regular expression ((\d)+):((\d)+)(am|pm), and using Mono interactive csharp:
csharp> Regex.Match("3:10pm", #"((\d)+):((\d)+)(am|pm)").
> Groups.Cast<Group>().
> Zip(Enumerable.Range(0, int.MaxValue), (g, n) => "[" + n + "] " + g);
{ "[0] 3:10pm", "[1] 3", "[2] 3", "[3] 10", "[4] 0", "[5] pm" }
So where's the 1?
Since there are multiple digits that match on the fourth group, we only "get at" the last match if we reference the group (with an implicit ToString(), that is). In order to expose the intermediate matches, we need to go deeper and reference the Captures property on the group in question:
csharp> Regex.Match("3:10pm", #"((\d)+):((\d)+)(am|pm)").
> Groups.Cast<Group>().
> Skip(4).First().Captures.Cast<Capture>().
> Zip(Enumerable.Range(0, int.MaxValue), (c, n) => "["+n+"] " + c);
{ "[0] 1", "[1] 0" }
Courtesy of this article.

A Group is what we have associated with groups in regular expressions
"(a[zx](b?))"
Applied to "axb" returns an array of 3 groups:
group 0: axb, the entire match.
group 1: axb, the first group matched.
group 2: b, the second group matched.
except that these are only 'captured' groups. Non capturing groups (using the '(?: ' syntax are not represented here.
"(a[zx](?:b?))"
Applied to "axb" returns an array of 2 groups:
group 0: axb, the entire match.
group 1: axb, the first group matched.
A Capture is also what we have associated with 'captured groups'. But when the group is applied with a quantifier multiple times, only the last match is kept as the group's match. The captures array stores all of these matches.
"(a[zx]\s+)+"
Applied to "ax az ax" returns an array of 2 captures of the second group.
group 1, capture 0 "ax "
group 1, capture 1 "az "
As for your last question -- I would have thought before looking into this that Captures would be an array of the captures ordered by the group they belong to. Rather it is just an alias to the groups[0].Captures. Pretty useless..

From the MSDN documentation:
The real utility of the Captures property occurs when a quantifier is applied to a capturing group so that the group captures multiple substrings in a single regular expression. In this case, the Group object contains information about the last captured substring, whereas the Captures property contains information about all the substrings captured by the group. In the following example, the regular expression \b(\w+\s*)+. matches an entire sentence that ends in a period. The group (\w+\s*)+ captures the individual words in the collection. Because the Group collection contains information only about the last captured substring, it captures the last word in the sentence, "sentence". However, each word captured by the group is available from the collection returned by the Captures property.

Imagine you have the following text input dogcatcatcat and a pattern like dog(cat(catcat))
In this case, you have 3 groups, the first one (major group) corresponds to the match.
Match == dogcatcatcat and Group0 == dogcatcatcat
Group1 == catcatcat
Group2 == catcat
So what it's all about?
Let's consider a little example written in C# (.NET) using Regex class.
int matchIndex = 0;
int groupIndex = 0;
int captureIndex = 0;
foreach (Match match in Regex.Matches(
"dogcatabcdefghidogcatkjlmnopqr", // input
#"(dog(cat(...)(...)(...)))") // pattern
)
{
Console.Out.WriteLine($"match{matchIndex++} = {match}");
foreach (Group #group in match.Groups)
{
Console.Out.WriteLine($"\tgroup{groupIndex++} = {#group}");
foreach (Capture capture in #group.Captures)
{
Console.Out.WriteLine($"\t\tcapture{captureIndex++} = {capture}");
}
captureIndex = 0;
}
groupIndex = 0;
Console.Out.WriteLine();
}
Output:
match0 = dogcatabcdefghi
group0 = dogcatabcdefghi
capture0 = dogcatabcdefghi
group1 = dogcatabcdefghi
capture0 = dogcatabcdefghi
group2 = catabcdefghi
capture0 = catabcdefghi
group3 = abc
capture0 = abc
group4 = def
capture0 = def
group5 = ghi
capture0 = ghi
match1 = dogcatkjlmnopqr
group0 = dogcatkjlmnopqr
capture0 = dogcatkjlmnopqr
group1 = dogcatkjlmnopqr
capture0 = dogcatkjlmnopqr
group2 = catkjlmnopqr
capture0 = catkjlmnopqr
group3 = kjl
capture0 = kjl
group4 = mno
capture0 = mno
group5 = pqr
capture0 = pqr
Let's analyze just the first match (match0).
As you can see there are three minor groups: group3, group4 and group5
group3 = kjl
capture0 = kjl
group4 = mno
capture0 = mno
group5 = pqr
capture0 = pqr
Those groups (3-5) were created because of the 'subpattern' (...)(...)(...) of the main pattern (dog(cat(...)(...)(...)))
Value of group3 corresponds to it's capture (capture0). (As in the case of group4 and group5). That's because there are no group repetition like (...){3}.
Ok, let's consider another example where there is a group repetition.
If we modify the regular expression pattern to be matched (for code shown above)
from (dog(cat(...)(...)(...))) to (dog(cat(...){3})),
you'll notice that there is the following group repetition: (...){3}.
Now the Output has changed:
match0 = dogcatabcdefghi
group0 = dogcatabcdefghi
capture0 = dogcatabcdefghi
group1 = dogcatabcdefghi
capture0 = dogcatabcdefghi
group2 = catabcdefghi
capture0 = catabcdefghi
group3 = ghi
capture0 = abc
capture1 = def
capture2 = ghi
match1 = dogcatkjlmnopqr
group0 = dogcatkjlmnopqr
capture0 = dogcatkjlmnopqr
group1 = dogcatkjlmnopqr
capture0 = dogcatkjlmnopqr
group2 = catkjlmnopqr
capture0 = catkjlmnopqr
group3 = pqr
capture0 = kjl
capture1 = mno
capture2 = pqr
Again, let's analyze just the first match (match0).
There are no more minor groups group4 and group5 because of (...){3} repetition ({n} wherein n>=2)
they've been merged into one single group group3.
In this case, the group3 value corresponds to it's capture2 (the last capture, in other words).
Thus if you need all the 3 inner captures (capture0, capture1, capture2) you'll have to cycle through the group's Captures collection.
Сonclusion is: pay attention to the way you design your pattern's groups.
You should think upfront what behavior causes group's specification, like (...)(...), (...){2} or (.{3}){2} etc.
Hopefully it will help shed some light on the differences between Captures, Groups and Matches as well.