CODEWITHSUNDEEP
regex
Tony Chamberlain
Tony Chamberlain

Reputation: 171

Using RegEx to find a specific word even if it has been separated by nonLetter characters

Regex may not be the correct tool for this, so if that is the case that is a good answer as well.

I'd like to find a word even if its been split by non Letter characters. For example if i'm trying to find One, O-ne would match, --O__n--e would match but O--nce would not.

To avoid the XY problem: This is for matching words in a profanity filter. This case came up and there is a fairly straightforward (if long) solution using String.toLower, String.Indexof and String.Replace to remove all the non letters, replace the word with *s and then reconstruct the original string. I was trying to find a solution using regular expressions. Here is what I've tried so far:

(.\*)(([^a-zA-Z]*)(?i)(Y)([^a-zA-Z]*)(?i)(e)([^a-zA-Z]*)(?i)(s)([^a-zA-Z]*)\b)(.\*)

It matches something like I wasn't born --Y_e--s, but not I wasn't born --Y_e--st.

So I added a ? after the \b to make the --Y_e--s portion optional (of course the beginning (.*) greedily matches the entire string no matter what everytime), changing it to this:

(.\*?)(([^a-zA-Z]*)(?i)(Y)([^a-zA-Z]*)(?i)(e)([^a-zA-Z]*)(?i)(s)([^a-zA-Z]*)\b)?(.\*?)

which doesn't match anything.

I'm stumped. What I'd like is this:

(Capture Group start of string) (Capture group of my Target word that might be separated by non Letter characters) (Capture Group of End of string).

Upvotes: 0

Views: 62

Answers (1)

Aleksandar
Aleksandar

Reputation: 2662

Well I'm not sure which regex flavour you use but you can try this.

https://regex101.com/r/qR1aP5/1

(\S)\s*(\S+)(\S)\s*(\S+)(\S)\s*(\S+)

Match against this text

I wasn't born --Y_e--s

Upvotes: 1

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