Remove characters using Regex

Question

I have a string. I need to replace all instances of a given array of strings from this original string - how would I do that?

Currently I am using...

var inputString = "this is my original string.";
var replacement = "";
var pattern = string.Join("|", arrayOfStringsToRemove);

Regex.Replace(inputString, pattern, replacement);

This works fine, but unfortunately it breaks down when someone tries to remove a character that has a special meaning in the regex.

How should I do this? Is there a better way?

gimel · Accepted Answer · 2008-12-11 10:50:48Z

3

Build the pattern using Regex.Escape:

StringBuilder pattern = new StringBuilder();
foreach (string s in arrayOfStringsToRemove)
{
    pattern.Append("(");
    pattern.Append(Regex.Escape(s));
    pattern.Append(")|");
}
Regex.Replace(inputString, pattern.ToString(0, pattern.Length - 1), // remove trailing |
    replacement);

answered Dec 11, 2008 at 10:50

gimel

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Comments

leppie · Accepted Answer · 2008-12-11 10:39:03Z

1

Look at Regex.Escape

answered Dec 11, 2008 at 10:39

leppie

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Comments

adam · Accepted Answer · 2008-12-11 10:29:44Z

0

You need to escape special characters with a backslash

Sometimes you may need to use two backslashes

\\

answered Dec 11, 2008 at 10:29

adam

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Comments

muhuk · Accepted Answer · 2008-12-11 10:31:02Z

0

You need to escape characters with spacial meaning of course.

var str_to_replace = "removing \[this\]\(link\)";

answered Dec 11, 2008 at 10:31

muhuk

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