Regex issues using Pattern-matching in C#

Question

I'm working with regex's using the RegEx.replace method and I'm running into some strings my patterns are not working for.

For strings such as:

"Av.Av. Italy"
"Av.  Av. Italy"
"Av. . Av. Italy"

I'm trying to replace the Av's and remove all the extra periods and whitespaces so I tyr to use this regex

 rgx = new Regex(@"(Av\.).(Av\.)");
 address = rgx.Replace(address, replacement);

[edit] I want all of the above strings to end up just saying

"Av. Italy"

But it doesn't change anything.

I also wanted to use a regex to get random periods that appear on some strings (eg: "word . other word") with

rgx= new Regex(@"\b\.\b");

But that doesn't do anything either...

Am I using the escape sequences wrong?

Can you give an example of how Av. . Av. Italy should end up like? — Jerry
– Jerry, Commented Dec 30, 2013 at 19:55

Jerry · Accepted Answer · 2013-12-30 20:11:19Z

1

You can perhaps use this regex:

rgx = new Regex(@".*(?:(Av\.)\s*)+");
address = rgx.Replace(address, replacement);

regex101 demo

ideone demo

The regex takes any characters, where there's an Av. somewhere ahead, eats all the duplicate Av. and spaces and replaces those with a single Av. (plus a space that got eaten by the regex).

For the second one, maybe that?

rgx= new Regex(@" \.(?= )");

\b matches between two word characters, namely between \w and \W no matter in what order they come, and \w is [a-zA-Z0-9_] while \W is the opposite. Since both space and . are in \W, you wouldn't have a match. Then, I used a space instead of \s because \s matches newlines, which I don't think is what you're looking for :)

The lookahead is to prevent the removal of two white spaces. Otherwise Word . Word would become WordWord.

answered Dec 30, 2013 at 20:11

Jerry

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7 Comments

ConnorU Over a year ago

The first regexp works perfectly and is just what I wanted, thank you! The second one, however didn't work. Any ideas?

Jerry Over a year ago

@ConnorU Are you sure? Word . word has to become Word word right? I made a demo. Otherwise, let me know what you're really expecting!

ConnorU Over a year ago

Yes, you are right. word . word does become word word. i'm getting an error with random .'s at the end of strings [so word . \newline] but I should be able to handle that. Thanks

Jerry Over a year ago

@ConnorU Oh, I guess that's something that will require I see the code to debug that part ^^;. Hopefully you'll be able to get it fixed (^.^)b Good luck!

ConnorU Over a year ago

I figured out how to fix that. One question though, the regex you gave me to take care of .'s between words also kills any numbers between words -- The 5 soldiers becomes The Soldiers. How do I avoid matching numbers?

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Dimitris Bouzikas · Accepted Answer · 2013-12-30 20:01:34Z

1

For the first this rgx = new Regex(@"(Av\.*[\s]*)*"); will work for you. For the second you must provide an example.

answered Dec 30, 2013 at 20:01

Dimitris Bouzikas

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8 Comments

ConnorU Over a year ago

You can take the third string I posted as an example, with that random . in between the "Av."'s Other examples: "Edinburgh . Plaza", "Av. . France"

ConnorU Over a year ago

I tried your suggestion, this is the output I got: "AvAvItaly\n Av.\n AvAvAvAv."...

Dimitris Bouzikas Over a year ago

I missed a dot rgx = new Regex(@"(Av\.*[\s.]*)*");. The third you mean this: "Av. . Av. Italy"?

ConnorU Over a year ago

Lol, that regex gives me

Av.v1Av8Av. AvdAveAv. AvJAvuAvlAviAvoAv. Av. Av.v1Av8Av. AvdAveAv. AvJAvuAvlAviAvoAv. Av. Av.Av8Av. AvdAveAv. AvjAvuAvlAviAvoAv.

:p

Douglas Over a year ago

@dimimpou: The outermost quantifier should be +, not *. Your pattern is matching empty strings.

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