Regex pattern not matching input string

Question

I need to find a pattern that restricts the input of data. What I need it to restrict input to:

First character must be "S" Second character must be "S", "T", "W", "X" or "V" The next 6 must be numbers for 0 - 9 The last 2 can be any capital letter or any number 0 - 9

So my research led me to put this together.....

^[S][STWXV]/d{6}[A-Z0-9]{2}$

From what I read:

[S] mean the capital letter S only [STWXV] means any one letter from this list /d{6} means 6 digits [A-Z0-9]{2} means any 2 characters A - Z or 0 - 9

I am not looking for a match anywhere in a string, i need the whole string to match this pattern.

So why does Regex.IsMatch("SX25536101", "^[S][STWXV]/d{6}[A-Z0-9]{2}$") return false?

Ive obviously gone wrong somewhere but this is my first attempt at Regular Expressions and this makes no sense :(

Try to find a title that describes your issue better. Consider that this title will be used on search-engines. — Tim Schmelter
– Tim Schmelter, Commented Jan 27, 2014 at 16:30
backslash escapes funny characters like \d. The forward slash is written on either side of a Regex in many languages, denoting that the expression is a Regex. — La-comadreja
– La-comadreja, Commented Jan 27, 2014 at 16:34
@TimSchmelter yes you are right, sorry I will change it, not sure if it will help anyone else though. New to this but hopefully will improve the quality of my contributions with time. Thanks everyone. — FlipTop
– FlipTop, Commented Jan 27, 2014 at 16:38

Jon · Accepted Answer · 2014-01-27 16:38:06Z

8

You need to use \d for digits:

 Regex.IsMatch("SX25536101", @"^[S][STWXV]\d{6}[A-Z0-9]{2}$"); // true

NOTE: Here is nice Regular Expressions Cheat Sheet which can help you in future.

edited Jan 27, 2014 at 16:38

Jon

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answered Jan 27, 2014 at 16:30

Sergey Berezovskiy

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1 Comment

FlipTop Over a year ago

How annoying to get so close an not spot such a silly error!! Thanks.

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 12:21:00Z

-1

Or don't use \d at all (preferred and faster):

^S[STWXV][0-9]{6}[A-Z0-9]{2}$

See here or here for why.

edited May 23, 2017 at 12:21

CommunityBot

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answered Jan 27, 2014 at 16:32

tenub

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2 Comments

OGHaza Over a year ago

why is that preferred? -1

La-comadreja Over a year ago

\d is shorthand for digits and it makes the Regex more concise. Use it.

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