Format strings with Regex

Question

I have some very "messy" strings that come in like this:

CR 722-2018
CR7222018
-CR 7222018

I need them converted into something like this:

CP-41-CR-0000722-2018

All three of the above would wind up looking like this.

I was curious if there was a way to accomplish this with RegEx? The format would look something like:

CP-41-CR-(\n{7})-(\n{4}).

Is this something that can be done with RegEx?

You dont really need Regex, you just need to strip out all non-digit characters and then interpolate the string — maccettura
– maccettura, Commented Feb 26, 2020 at 14:20
To expand on Maccuttura comment "T0e1s2t3S4t5r6i7n8g9h10e11r12e13".Where(Char.IsDigit).Take(7) A simple .Where(Char.IsDigit).Take(7) should do the job Is the CR important does it vary? Do you need to pad with 0 the 722 part or does it range from 001-999? Some test case to cover all edge case would be nice.. — xdtTransform
– xdtTransform, Commented Feb 26, 2020 at 14:22
For the year par do you want to enforce the 4 digit or "CR 72220-18" will give a valid "CP-41-CR-0072220-18"? — xdtTransform
– xdtTransform, Commented Feb 26, 2020 at 14:28
@xdtTransform, I would want to enforce 4 digit -- default to 20xx — RHarris
– RHarris, Commented Feb 26, 2020 at 14:43

score 2 · Accepted Answer · 2020-02-26 19:27:07Z

2

Yes, that can be done with RegEx as follows:

var patt = @".*?(CR)\s?(\d\d\d)\-?(\d\d\d\d)";

Regex.Matches(txtIn.Text, patt, RegexOptions.Multiline | RegexOptions.IgnoreCase).Cast<Match>()
    .ToList().ForEach(m => 
    Console.WriteLine($"CP-41-{m.Groups[1].Value}0000{m.Groups[2].Value}-{m.Groups[3].Value}"));

Where the txtIn.Text is the input of the messy strings.

Here is a test.

Also the pattern .*?(CR)\s?(\d{3})\-?(\d{4}) will do.

edited Feb 26, 2020 at 19:27

answered Feb 26, 2020 at 19:18

user10216583

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2 Comments

MKR Over a year ago

May be 0000{m.Groups[2].Value} can be written as {m.Groups[2].Value.PadLeft(7,'0')}

user10216583 Over a year ago

@MKR uhh. Only the big boys can code like that. Thank you mate.

jdweng · Accepted Answer · 2020-02-26 15:21:00Z

1

Try following :

            string[] inputs = {
                                  "CR 722-2018",
                                  "CR7222018",
                                  "-CR 7222018"
                              };
            foreach (string input in inputs)
            {
                string digits = string.Join("", input.Where(x => char.IsDigit(x)));
                string output = string.Format("CP-41-CR-000{0}-{1}", digits.Substring(0, 3), digits.Substring(3));
                Console.WriteLine(output);
            }
            Console.ReadLine();

answered Feb 26, 2020 at 15:21

jdweng

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