View Category
Regex
Matching

Check if a string matches a regular expression

Display "ok" if "Hello" matches /[A-Z][a-z]+/
scala
if ("Hello".matches("[A-Z][a-z]+")) println("ok")
csharp
if (Regex.IsMatch("Hello", "[A-Z][a-z]+"))
{
Console.WriteLine("ok");
}

Check if a string matches with groups

Display "two" if "one two three" matches /one (.*) three/
scala
val m = Pattern.compile("one (.*) three").matcher("one two three")
if (m.matches) println(m.group(1))
csharp
using System;
using System.Text.RegularExpressions;

public class RegexBackReference {
public static void Main() {
var oneTwoThree = "one two three";
var pattern = "one (.*) three";

Match match = Regex.Match(oneTwoThree, pattern);

// group 0 is the entire match. 1 is the first backreference
Console.WriteLine(match.Groups[1]);
}
}
Searching

Check if a string contains a match to a regular expression

Display "ok" if "abc 123 @#$" matches /\d+/
scala
if (Pattern.compile("\\d+").matcher("abc 123 @#$").find) println("ok")
csharp
if(System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.IsMatch("abc 123 @#$",@"\d+")){
Console.WriteLine("ok");
}

Loop through a string matching a regex and performing an action for each match

Create a list [fish1,cow3,boat4] when matching "(fish):1 sausage (cow):3 tree (boat):4" with regex /\((\w+)\):(\d+)/
scala
val m = Pattern.compile("\\((\\w+)\\):(\\d+)").matcher("(fish):1 sausage (cow):3 tree (boat):4")
var list : List[String] = Nil

while (m.find) list = (m.group(1) + m.group(2)) :: list ; list = list.reverse
csharp
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text.RegularExpressions;

public static class extensions {
public static IList<string> Map(this string me, string pattern, Func<Match, string> action){
IList<string> matches = new List<string>();
foreach (Match match in Regex.Matches(me,pattern)){
matches.Add(action(match));
}
return matches;
}
}

class Test
{
static void Main()
{
IList<string> list = "(fish):1 sausage (cow):3 tree (boat):4".Map(@"\((\w+)\):(\d+)", (m) => {return m.Groups[1].Value + m.Groups[2].Value;});
}
}
Replacing

Replace the first regex match in a string with a static string

Transform "Red Green Blue" into "R*d Green Blue" by replacing /e/ with "*"
scala
val replaced = "Red Green Blue".replaceFirst("e", "*")

Replace all regex matches in a string with a static string

Transform "She sells sea shells" into "She X X shells" by replacing /se\w+/ with "X"
scala
val replaced = "She sells sea shells".replaceAll("se\\w+", "X")
csharp
using System.Text.RegularExpressions;

class SolutionXX
{
static void Main()
{
string text = "She sells sea shells";
string result = Regex.Replace(text, @"se\w+", "X");
}
}

Replace all regex matches in a string with a dynamic string

Transform "The {Quick} Brown {Fox}" into "The kciuQ Brown xoF" by reversing words in braces using the regex /\{(\w+)\}/.
scala
val m = Pattern.compile("\\{(\\w+)\\}").matcher("The {Quick} Brown {Fox}")
val sb = new StringBuffer(32) ; val rsb = new StringBuffer(8)

while (m.find) { rsb.replace(0, rsb.length, m.group(1)) ; m.appendReplacement(sb, rsb.reverse.toString) }
m.appendTail(sb)