C# How to use textbox text as Regex OR String

Question

I have an application that the user may specify a prompt... That may be in Regex type or in string type.

The user have a checkbox, if he check the checkbox the prompt var will be a string type if not check will be a Regex.

Then I need to be able to reference that later in the program.

so I am wondering how to define that...

Currently I have the following :

textbox1.text = "\[.*@.*\][\$|\#]"  < --- that is a Regex

or it could be something like :

textbox1.text = "#$"                < --- that would be a regular string...

and somewhere in my apps I need to use that info...

string userPrompt:
string rootPrompt;

if (userPromptIsText)
{
    userPrompt = textBoxp4RegPrompt.Text.Trim();
}
else
{
    // here how do I say that userprompt is a regex type?
}

you have not posted all the relevant code. We would need to see your HTML of the form that has your checkbox, and text field. — Billy Moon
– Billy Moon, Commented Apr 8, 2013 at 15:49
You already have the value from the checkbox. What more do you need? — Patrick
– Patrick, Commented Apr 8, 2013 at 16:06
@Patrick I need to be able to take the textbox1.text value and use it as a regex, but later in the apps. So when I need to use it I have to be able to either use it as a string or as a regex... but not sure if possible I would like to maintain the same name i.e userPrompt... no matter what type it is... — jonathan
– jonathan, Commented Apr 8, 2013 at 16:10
Is there something preventing you from passing a boolean from the checkbox along with userPrompt? — Patrick
– Patrick, Commented Apr 8, 2013 at 16:11

James Toomey · Accepted Answer · 2013-04-08 16:50:17Z

1

It seems like you should store the entered regular expression not in the string variable "userPrompt", but rather in a Regex so you can use it:

System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex regex = new System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex(textBoxp4RegPrompt.Text.Trim());

And then you can use the regex variable for performing matches:

System.Text.RegularExpressions.Match results = regex.Match(stringToTest);  
MessageBox.Show(results.Groups[0].Value);
MessageBox.Show(results.Groups[1].Value);

answered Apr 8, 2013 at 16:50

James Toomey

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