VB.NET Regex.Replace Function

Regex.Replace performs complex text substitutions. It can use a delegate function for replacements—this is a MatchEvaluator type. But in simpler cases it is often sufficient to use a String replacement.Regex.Match Strings

Example. To start, please notice the Imports directive. This gives you easier access to all the Regex types. After declaring the input string, we invoke the Regex.Replace function and pass three arguments to it.

Arguments: The input string reference, the pattern to match, and the replacement for matching sequences.

Finally: The program demonstrates that the function call performed the task correctly.

VB.NET program that uses Regex.Replace Imports System.Text.RegularExpressions Module Module1 Sub Main() ' Input string. Dim input As String = "Dot Net Not Perls" ' Use Regex.Replace with string arguments. Dim output As String = Regex.Replace(input, "N.t", "NET") ' Print. Console.WriteLine(input) Console.WriteLine(output) End Sub End Module Output Dot Net Not Perls Dot NET NET Perls

MatchEvaluator. As mentioned, the Regex.Replace function has a more powerful mechanism for replacing text programmatically. To use this mechanism, you must create a MatchEvaluator instance, which is a delegate pointer to a function.

UpperFirst: Please look at the UpperFirst function. This invokes the Regex.Replace shared method, and passes three arguments.

Note: The second argument is the pattern of character sequences we want to replace. The third argument is a MatchEvaluator instance.

New: To create the MatchEvaluator, use the New operator and the AddressOf operator with a function name.

Tip: The UpperEvaluator method describes the implementation for the MatchEvaluator. It uppercases only the first character of its input.

AddressOf

VB.NET program that uses Regex.Replace with MatchEvaluator Imports System.Text.RegularExpressions Module Module1 Sub Main() ' Three input strings. Dim a As String = "bluebird bio" Dim b As String = "intercept pharmaceuticals" Dim c As String = "puma biotechnology" ' Write the uppercased forms. Console.WriteLine(UpperFirst(a)) Console.WriteLine(UpperFirst(b)) Console.WriteLine(UpperFirst(c)) End Sub Function UpperFirst(ByRef value As String) As String ' Invoke the Regex.Replace function. Return Regex.Replace(value, _ "\b[a-z]\w+", _ New MatchEvaluator(AddressOf UpperEvaluator)) End Function Function UpperEvaluator(ByVal match As Match) As String ' Get string from match. Dim v As String = match.ToString() ' Uppercase only first letter. Return Char.ToUpper(v(0)) + v.Substring(1) End Function End Module Output Bluebird Bio Intercept Pharmaceuticals Puma Biotechnology

One possible optimization you could employ on this example is to store the MatchEvaluator instance itself as field upon the enclosing type. Then, you can simply access this field on each call to Regex.Replace.

And: Not only this, but you could cache a Regex object as a field and call Replace on that.

Using the MatchEvaluator type in VB.NET requires an understanding of how to construct an instance by assigning it to the address of an appropriate implementation. You hook up the MatchEvaluator delegate type to an implementation.

Next: The implementation must receive and return the correct Match and String types.

Review: With MatchEvaluator, we create powerful mechanisms to programmatically mutate matching text patterns.

Summary. The Regex.Replace function in VB.NET provides a useful string-based replacement facility. Using patterns and special characters, you can add power to your replacements, without adding imperative logic that is hard to maintain.

The Dev Codes

.Net

.NET Array Dictionary List String 2D Async DataTable Dates DateTime Enum File For Foreach Format IEnumerable If IndexOf Lambda LINQ Parse Path Process Property Regex Replace Sort Split Static StringBuilder Substring Switch Tuple

Java

Core Array ArrayList HashMap String 2D Cast Character Console Deque Duplicates File For Format HashSet If IndexOf Lambda Math ParseInt Process Random Regex Replace Sort Split StringBuilder Substring Switch Vector While

TheDeveloperBlog.com

VB.NET Regex.Replace Function

Related Links:

.Net

Java

Related Links