Reputation: 31
I have posted this earlier but did not give clear information on what i was trying to achieve.
I am trying get values from a string using Regex in c#. I am not able to understand why some values i could get and some i can not using a similar approach.
Please find the code snippet below. Kindly let me know what i am missing. Thanks in advance.
string text = "0*MAO-001*20160409*20160408*Encounter Data Duplicates Report * *ENC000200800400120160407*PRO*PROD*";
//toget the value 20160409 from the above text
//this code works fine
Regex pattern = new Regex(@"([0][*]MAO[-][0][0][1].*?[*](?<Value>\d+)[*])");
Match match = pattern.Match(text);
string Value = match.Groups["Value"].Value.ToString();
//to get the value ENC000200800400120160407 from the above text
// this does not work and gives me nothing
Regex pattern2 = new Regex(@"([0][*]MAO[-][0][0][1].*?[*].*?[*].*?[*].*?[*].*?[*](?<Value2>\d+)[*])");
Match match2 = pattern.Match(text);
string Value2 = match.Groups["Value2"].Value.ToString();
Upvotes: 1
Views: 154
Reputation: 840
It looks your file is '*' delimitered.
You can use one single regex to catch all the values
Try use
((?<values>[^\*]+)\*)
as your pattern.
All these values will be catched in values array.
----Update add c# code-----
string text = "0*MAO-001*20160409*20160408*Encounter Data Duplicates Report * *ENC000200800400120160407*PRO*PROD*";
Regex pattern = new Regex(@"(?<values>[^\*]+)\*");
var matches = pattern.Matches(text);
string Value = matches[3].Groups["values"].Captures[0];
string Value2 = matches[6].Groups["values"].Captures[0];
Upvotes: 1
Reputation: 11042
You need to use this for 2nd regex
([0][*]MAO[-][0][0][1].*?[*].*?[*].*?[*].*?[*].*?[*](?<Value2>\w+)[*])
\w
is any character from set [A-Za-z0-9_]
. You were using only \d
which searches for digits [0-9]
which was not the case
Upvotes: 0
Reputation:
You almost got it, but the field you're looking for contains letters and digits.
This is your second regex kind of fixed.
([0][*]MAO[-][0][0][1].*?[*](?:.*?[*]){4}(?<Value2>.*?)[*])
( # (1 start)
[0] [*] MAO [-] [0] [0] [1] .*? [*]
(?: .*? [*] ){4}
(?<Value2> .*? ) # (2)
[*]
) # (1 end)
To make it a little less busy, this might be better
(0\*MAO-001.*?\*(?:[^*]*\*){4}(?<Value2>[^*]*)\*)
Upvotes: 0
Reputation: 7148
In your second try at using the regex, you are matching with pattern
and not pattern2
.
Match match2 = pattern.Match(text);
string Value2 = match.Groups["Value2"].Value.ToString();
You are also using the Groups
from match
and not match2
.
This is why it is important to name your variables something meaningful to what they represent. Yes it may be a "pattern" but what does that pattern represent. When you use variables that are vaguely named it creates issues like these.
Upvotes: 0