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[.net] Wildcard searching

General and Gameplay Programming Programming

Started by Headkaze June 02, 2009 08:41 PM

3 comments, last by Headkaze 14 years, 10 months ago

Headkaze

607

Author

June 02, 2009 08:41 PM

I need to write a search system that can use the "*" wilcard character in a string. For example consider these strings

string1 = "My Game [Date: 2003]"
string2 = "[Date: *]"
string3 = ""
string4 = "*"

I need to be able to say

if string1 contains string2 then string3 = string4

So in other words

if "My Game [Date: 2003]" contains "[Date: *]" then string3 = "*"

Meaning that string3 should now equal "2003".

ChaosEngine

5,385

June 02, 2009 09:07 PM

Sounds like you're looking for regular expressions.

if you think programming is like sex, you probably haven't done much of either.-------------- - capn_midnight

Headkaze

607

Author

June 03, 2009 03:00 AM

Yes I know about regular expressions. I have the following method I use:

public static bool IsWildcardMatch(string originalString, string searchString){	if (!searchString.Contains("*"))		return false;	Regex regEx = new Regex("^" + Regex.Escape(searchString).Replace("\\*", ".*").Replace("\\?", ".") + "$");	return regEx.IsMatch(originalString);}

I need a similar method that will match part of a string (Eg. like String.Contains()) allowing only one "*" and have an "out string wildcardString" parameter that will output what was inside the "*".

Magos

218

June 03, 2009 03:16 AM

Check if there's a match, and if it is get the value using a group:

var s = "My Game [Date: 2003]";var p = "\\[Date: (?<Year>.*?)\\]";var m = System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.Match(s, p);if(m.Success) MessageBox(m.Groups["Year"].Value);

----------------------------------------MagosX.com

Headkaze

607

Author

June 03, 2009 10:26 AM

Thanks Magos that's exactly what I was looking for. Here is the resulting method if anyone else is interested.

public static bool IsWildcardMatch(string originalString, string searchString, out string[] wildcardArray, bool ignoreCase){	wildcardArray = null;	Regex regEx = new Regex("^" + Regex.Escape(searchString).Replace("\\*", "(?<Asterisk>.*?)").Replace("\\?", "(?<QuestionMark>.?)") + "$", (ignoreCase ? RegexOptions.IgnoreCase : RegexOptions.None));	Match regMatch = regEx.Match(originalString);	if (regMatch.Success)	{		List<string> wildcardList = new List<string>();		foreach (Capture capture in regMatch.Groups["Asterisk"].Captures)			wildcardList.Add(capture.Value);		wildcardArray = wildcardList.ToArray();	}	return regMatch.Success;}

[.net] Wildcard searching

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[.net] Wildcard searching

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