RegEx Replace string

Question

I am trying to normalise a string before I go ahead and parse it. Basically remove any spaces before or after a comma and if two or more commas are only separated by space then replace by a single comma.

var r = new Regex(@"(\s*,+\s*)");
var query = r.Replace("my reg, is a   disaster    everytime , i,try ,it,       yep, ,disaster.", ",");

The output should be:

my reg,is a   disaster    everytime,i,try,it,yep,disaster.

but its:

my reg,is a   disaster    everytime,i,try,it,yep,,disaster.

Any help is appreciated

Peter Rankin · Accepted Answer · 2013-04-03 14:05:51Z

5

Try

var r = new Regex(@"(\s|,)*,(\s|,)*");

Basically, replace any number of commas and spaces with a single comma, where at least one comma exists.

answered Apr 3, 2013 at 14:05

Peter Rankin

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illegal-immigrant · Accepted Answer · 2013-04-03 14:16:24Z

2

A non-Regex solution:

var dirty = "my reg, is a   disaster    everytime , i,try ,it,       yep, ,disaster.";
var clean = string.Join(",",
                           dirty.Split(new[] {","}, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries)
                                .Select(x => x.Trim())
                                .Where(x => x.Length > 0));

Output:

my reg,is a   disaster    everytime,i,try,it,yep,disaster.

How it works? Split original string by "," symbol, throw away empty strings, trim all white spaces from start/end of every string, join non-empty strings using same ",".

IMO, easier to support than RegEx

edited Apr 3, 2013 at 14:16

answered Apr 3, 2013 at 14:11

illegal-immigrant

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Comments

Andreas Schlapsi · Accepted Answer · 2013-04-03 14:05:16Z

0

In the original string there is a space between the two commas (", ,"), but the regex says ,+ which means one or more consecutive commas. Does this work: (\s*(,\s+)+\s*)?

answered Apr 3, 2013 at 14:05

Andreas Schlapsi

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