Regex Replace Simple String

Question

I want to write a piece of code using regex that let's my replace ANY value inside my parenthesis. Take the following cases

Target text: build (123)

build (##-build-##)
build (111)
build (xxyyzz)

In all cases I want to find the word "build (*)" on the page, and replace it with my desired value.

Nope. This is just a hidden snippet of text at the bottom of our site for testers to look at. — Adam Levitt
– Adam Levitt, Commented Jan 10, 2013 at 1:11
I have edited your title. Please see, "Should questions include “tags” in their titles?", where the consensus is "no, they should not". — John Saunders
– John Saunders, Commented Jan 10, 2013 at 1:44

fge · Accepted Answer · 2013-01-10 01:13:56Z

2

Replace:

\b(build \()[^)]+(\))

with:

\1yourreplacementhere\2

answered Jan 10, 2013 at 1:13

fge

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3 Comments

Jeff Over a year ago

Uh? Won't this match only if the build part is the entire string?

fge Over a year ago

Well, yes, and given the samples the OP has given, it looks like it will be the case. At least nothing tells otherwise (edit: no, I am mistaken, will edit).

Jeff Over a year ago

"In all cases I want to find the word "build (*)" on the page" - I took this to mean that it was supposed to search the page... could be wrong though

Kirill Polishchuk · Accepted Answer · 2013-01-10 01:16:48Z

1

Use pattern (?<=build\s)\([^)]*\):

var input = "build (##-build-##)";

var result = Regex.Replace(input, @"(?<=build\s)\([^)]*\)", "new value");

Console.WriteLine(result);

answered Jan 10, 2013 at 1:16

Kirill Polishchuk

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2 Comments

fge Over a year ago

That will also remove the parens, if I have read correctly the OP wants to replace the value inside them, not remove them altogether

Jeff Over a year ago

@fge Easy enough to throw parens into the new value, but should probably be mentioned in the answer.

e_ne · Accepted Answer · 2013-01-10 01:26:25Z

1

Try this code, but be aware that it will disregard nested parenthesis:

var pattern = @"build \((.+)\)";
var regex = new Regex(pattern);
string[] strings =
{
    "build (##-build-##)",
    "build (111)",
    "build (xxyyzz)"
};
var results = strings.
    Select(s => regex.Replace(s, "(foo)")).
    ToArray();
//results = {build (foo), build(foo), build(foo)}

edited Jan 10, 2013 at 1:26

answered Jan 10, 2013 at 1:13

e_ne

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7 Comments

fge Over a year ago

"be aware that it will disregard nested parenthesis" <-- OP says there can't be any, so this is safe. THere is another concern though, the word can appear several time in a page: your first .+ will swallow all until the end and give back to the last paren...

e_ne Over a year ago

@fge I'm aware of the context the author wants to use it in, but I've adapted the example to map the input he provided to the desire output. It's unclear for me if he wants the Regex to operate on the entire page or on the strings taken singularly.

fge Over a year ago

Well, OP says 'I want to find the word "build (*)" on the page', so... (and the fix is easy: use a complemented character class)

e_ne Over a year ago

@fge I still think that the question was ambiguous. I'll edit my post making the pattern more specific. I didn't understand your first concern, about .+; he capitalized "ANY", which made me think that even whitespaces and new lines count.

Adam Levitt Over a year ago

I was a bit unclear, but I want to read in the entire contents of a file, find this string, and then replace it, and rewrite back out the file.

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