CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#.netstringstartswith
Robin
Robin

Reputation: 1967

How do I use string.StartsWith() when I only have some parts of the comparison string?

I'm working with the IRC-protocol, and I am trying to interpret the server messages. If I for instance got the following string:

":USERNAME!~IP PRIVMSG #CHANNELNAME :MESSAGE"

How can I use string.StartsWith if I don't know the variables: USERNAME, IP, CHANNELNAME or MESSAGE?

I would like to do something like this: (I'm aware that this doesn't work)

if(MessageString.StartsWith(":*!~* PRIVMSG #*"))

Upvotes: 0

Views: 166

Answers (4)

Dan
Dan

Reputation: 9837

Try something like this, using the Regex class.

var regex = new Regex(
    @":(?<userName>[^!]+)!~(?<ip>[^ ]+) PRIVMSG #(?<theRest>[\s\S]+)");
var match = regex.Match(MessageString);
if (match.Success)
{
    var userName = match.Groups["userName"].Value;
    var ip = match.Groups["ip"].Value;
    var theRest = match.Groups["theRest"].Value;

    // do whatever
}

I would also take a look at the MSDN page for regular expressions in .Net.

Upvotes: 0

Dmitrii Bychenko
Dmitrii Bychenko

Reputation: 186748

You may try using regular expressions:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/az24scfc.aspx

  // Check this regular expression: 
  // I've tried to reconstruct it from wild card in the question 
  Regex regex = new Regex(@":.*\!~.* PRIVMSG \#.*");

  Match m = regex.Match(":USERNAME!~IP PRIVMSG #CHANNELNAME :MESSAGE");

  if (m.Success) {
    int startWith = m.Index;
    int length = m.Length;
    ...
  }

Upvotes: 1

BVdjV
BVdjV

Reputation: 116

Try using a separator after the words you don't know and parse a string from the main one containing only the message.

Upvotes: -1

schoetbi
schoetbi

Reputation: 12866

I would not use StartsWith. I suggest to parse the string by e.g. splitting it into tokens. That way you can check wether the PrivMsg string is contained in the token-List.

There might be libraries allready to parse IRC Messages. Have you checked https://launchpad.net/ircdotnet?

Upvotes: 2

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