I need to match all the whole words containing a given a string.
string s = "ABC.MYTESTING
XYZ.YOUTESTED
ANY.TESTING";
Regex r = new Regex("(?<TM>[!\..]*TEST.*)", ...);
MatchCollection mc = r.Matches(s);
I need the result to be:
MYTESTING
YOUTESTED
TESTING
But I get:
TESTING
TESTED
.TESTING
How do I achieve this with Regular expressions.
Edit: Extended sample string.
If you were looking for all words including 'TEST', you should use
@"(?<TM>\w*TEST\w*)"
\w includes word characters and is short for [A-Za-z0-9_]
\w matches [0-9a-zA-Z_]. If you don't want numbers or underscores, stick with \b.
Keep it simple: why not just try \w*TEST\w* as the match pattern.
I get the results you are expecting with the following:
string s = @"ABC.MYTESTING
XYZ.YOUTESTED
ANY.TESTING";
var m = Regex.Matches(s, @"(\w*TEST\w*)", RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);
RegexOptions.Multiline serves no purpose here.
Try using \b. It's the regex flag for a non-word delimiter. If you wanted to match both words you could use:
/\b[a-z]+\b/i
BTW, .net doesn't need the surrounding /, and the i is just a case-insensitive match flag.
.NET Alternative:
var re = new Regex(@"\b[a-z]+\b", RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);
\btest[a-z]+\b, e.g. ideone.com/8KNQzUsing Groups I think you can achieve it.
string s = @"ABC.TESTING
XYZ.TESTED";
Regex r = new Regex(@"(?<TM>[!\..]*(?<test>TEST.*))", RegexOptions.Multiline);
var mc= r.Matches(s);
foreach (Match match in mc)
{
Console.WriteLine(match.Groups["test"]);
}
Works exactly like you want.
BTW, your regular expression pattern should be a verbatim string ( @"")
Multiline option isn't needed here, but IgnoreCase might be. And regarding [!\..]*, see my answer.
Regex r = new Regex(@"(?<TM>[^.]*TEST.*)", RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);
First, as @manojlds said, you should use verbatim strings for regexes whenever possible. Otherwise you'll have to use two backslashes in most of your regex escape sequences, not just one (e.g. [!\\..]*).
Second, if you want to match anything but a dot, that part of the regex should be [^.]*. ^ is the metacharacter that inverts the character class, not !, and . has no special meaning in that context, so it doesn't need to be escaped. But you should probably use \w* instead, or even [A-Z]*, depending on what exactly you mean by "word". [!\..] matches ! or ..
Regex r = new Regex(@"(?<TM>[A-Z]*TEST[A-Z]*)", RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);
That way you don't need to bother with word boundaries, though they don't hurt:
Regex r = new Regex(@"(?<TM>\b[A-Z]*TEST[A-Z]*\b)", RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);
Finally, if you're always taking the whole match anyway, you don't need to use a capturing group:
Regex r = new Regex(@"\b[A-Z]*TEST[A-Z]*\b", RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);
The matched text will be available via Match's Value property.