Regex pattern for string manipulation

Question

I have the following line:

{ "diameter":6 }   { 60 }  {"din":Anchor-1 R 6/5SPx3} {"length":30 } { Impact anchor } {"diameter":6 } { Online:0 } {, de03042 }

I'm trying to remove the following:

whitespace between each opening and closing braces e.g. { "diameter":6 } { 60 } changes to { "diameter":6 }{ 60 }
Any opened and closed brace that has a number inside it. In this case, { 60} will disappear from the output.

I'm using the following pattern but it's not giving the desired output.

s = Regex.Replace(s, @"\s+[{}^]", ""); //Remove whitespace between each element

s = Regex.Replace(s, @"{{ [0-9^}]*}\}", ""); // Remove { 60 }

Desired output:

{ "diameter":6 }{"din":Anchor-1 R 6/5SPx3}{"length":30 }{ Impact anchor } {"diameter":6 }{ Online:0 }{, de03042 }

Current Output:

{ "diameter":660"din":Anchor-1 R 6/5SPx3}"length":30 Impact anchor HPS-1 R 6/5SPx3"diameter":6 Online:0 de03042

Could anyone please point out what's wrong with my patterns?

@Liam added the output.

user4563563
– user4563563

2015-07-21 11:51:34 +00:00
Commented Jul 21, 2015 at 11:51 — user4563563
– user4563563, Commented Jul 21, 2015 at 11:51

Wiktor Stribiżew · Accepted Answer · 2015-07-21 11:55:58Z

5

You can use the following regex:

(?<=})\s*(?={)|{\s*\d+\s*}

Replace with string.Empty.

See demo

Result:

enter image description here

REGEX EXPLANATION:

The pattern contains 2 alternatives (note the | alternation operator).

(?<=})\s*(?={):
- (?<=}) - a positive lookbehind that makes sure there is a }
- \s* - 0 or more (*) whitespace (\s)
- (?={) - a positive lookahead that makes sure there is { right after the whitespace
{\s*\d+\s*}:
- { - matches a { literally
- \s* - 0 or more (*) whitespace (\s)
- \d+ - 1 or more digits
- \s* - 0 or more (*) whitespace (\s)
- } - matches a } literally.

edited Jul 21, 2015 at 11:55

answered Jul 21, 2015 at 11:50

Wiktor Stribiżew

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3 Comments

Liam Over a year ago

Better than my answer!

Wiktor Stribiżew Over a year ago

@Liam, what was yours? I did not see :( MaskedAfrican: Actually, we can use alternation here with 1 regex since you replace with empty string. Otherwise, it would be more complicated, and would need code adjustment.

Liam Over a year ago

I deleted it, yours is much cleaner, I was using multiple patterns!

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