Reputation: 1734
According to Regex
documentation, using RegexOptions.ExplicitCapture
makes the Regex only match named groups like (?<groupName>...)
; but in action it does something a little bit different.
Consider these lines of code:
static void Main(string[] args) {
Regex r = new Regex(
@"(?<code>^(?<l1>[\d]{2})/(?<l2>[\d]{3})/(?<l3>[\d]{2})$|^(?<l1>[\d]{2})/(?<l2>[\d]{3})$|(?<l1>^[\d]{2}$))"
, RegexOptions.ExplicitCapture
);
var x = r.Match("32/123/03");
r.GetGroupNames().ToList().ForEach(gn => {
Console.WriteLine("GroupName:{0,5} --> Value: {1}", gn, x.Groups[gn].Success ? x.Groups[gn].Value : "");
});
}
When you run this snippet you'll see the result contains a group named 0 while I don't have a group named 0 in my regex!
GroupName: 0 --> Value: 32/123/03
GroupName: code --> Value: 32/123/03
GroupName: l1 --> Value: 32
GroupName: l2 --> Value: 123
GroupName: l3 --> Value: 03
Press any key to continue . . .
Could somebody please explain this behavior to me?
Upvotes: 1
Views: 1716
Reputation: 74365
You always have group 0: that's the entire match. Numbered groups are relative to 1 based on the ordinal position of the opening parenthesis that defines the group. Your regular expression (formatted for clarity):
(?<code>
^
(?<l1> [\d]{2} )
/
(?<l2> [\d]{3} )
/
(?<l3> [\d]{2} )
$
|
^
(?<l1>[\d]{2})
/
(?<l2>[\d]{3})
$
|
(?<l1> ^[\d]{2} $ )
)
Your expression will backtrack, so you might consider simplifying your regular expression. This is probably clearer and more efficient:
static Regex rxCode = new Regex(@"
^ # match start-of-line, followed by
(?<code> # a mandatory group ('code'), consisting of
(?<g1> \d\d ) # - 2 decimal digits ('g1'), followed by
( # - an optional group, consisting of
/ # - a literal '/', followed by
(?<g2> \d\d\d ) # - 3 decimal digits ('g2'), followed by
( # - an optional group, consisting of
/ # - a literal '/', followed by
(?<g3> \d\d ) # - 2 decimal digits ('g3')
)? # - END: optional group
)? # - END: optional group
) # - END: named group ('code'), followed by
$ # - end-of-line
" , RegexOptions.IgnorePatternWhitespace|RegexOptions.ExplicitCapture );
Once you have that, something like this:
string[] texts = { "12" , "12/345" , "12/345/67" , } ;
foreach ( string text in texts )
{
Match m = rxCode.Match( text ) ;
Console.WriteLine("{0}: match was {1}" , text , m.Success ? "successful" : "NOT successful" ) ;
if ( m.Success )
{
Console.WriteLine( " code: {0}" , m.Groups["code"].Value ) ;
Console.WriteLine( " g1: {0}" , m.Groups["g1"].Value ) ;
Console.WriteLine( " g2: {0}" , m.Groups["g2"].Value ) ;
Console.WriteLine( " g3: {0}" , m.Groups["g3"].Value ) ;
}
}
produces the expected
12: match was successful
code: 12
g1: 12
g2:
g3:
12/345: match was successful
code: 12/345
g1: 12
g2: 345
g3:
12/345/67: match was successful
code: 12/345/67
g1: 12
g2: 345
g3: 67
Upvotes: 1