Simple Regex

[Razzie]

Hey all,

Decided to give a shot at Regular expressions - need a bit of help :)

I can't seem to find the right regex for matching words like "*test*" or
*somevalue*" - in short, all words starting and ending with a *.

I tried things like string regex = @"(^*\|*^)") ;
but it still doesn't work completely (matches on "*test" too for example).
If anything could help me with this, that would be appreciated.

Also, does anyone have really GOOD regex tutorials? I read this one
http://www.regular-expressions.info/tutorial.html but that one is (imho)
still pretty hard to grasp.

Thanks!

Razzie

[Niki Estner]

"Razzie" <ra****@quickne t.nl> wrote in
news:Os******** *****@TK2MSFTNG P11.phx.gbl...

Hey all,

Decided to give a shot at Regular expressions - need a bit of help :)

I can't seem to find the right regex for matching words like "*test*" or
*somevalue*" - in short, all words starting and ending with a *.

I tried things like string regex = @"(^*\|*^)") ;
but it still doesn't work completely (matches on "*test" too for
example). If anything could help me with this, that would be appreciated.
You need to escape the asterix '*', because it's a regex metacharacter.
This pattern should work: @"\*\w+\*" (Read: Literally '*', followed by at
least one alphanumeric character, followed by another '*')
I've applied it to this post, and it only matched on the two samples above
Also, does anyone have really GOOD regex tutorials? I read this one
http://www.regular-expressions.info/tutorial.html but that one is (imho)
still pretty hard to grasp.

Using Expresso (www.ultrapico.com) usually makes things a lot easier.
If you want a really good text on it, get J. Friedl's "Mastering Regular
Expressions".

Niki

[Razzie]

Thanks Niki, that works! And looks better too :P

I'll have a look at Expresso too.

Thanks again!

"Niki Estner" <ni*********@cu be.net> wrote in message
news:eA******** ******@TK2MSFTN GP15.phx.gbl...

"Razzie" <ra****@quickne t.nl> wrote in
news:Os******** *****@TK2MSFTNG P11.phx.gbl...

Hey all,

Decided to give a shot at Regular expressions - need a bit of help :)

I can't seem to find the right regex for matching words like "*test*" or
*somevalue*" - in short, all words starting and ending with a *.

I tried things like string regex = @"(^*\|*^)") ;
but it still doesn't work completely (matches on "*test" too for
example). If anything could help me with this, that would be appreciated.

You need to escape the asterix '*', because it's a regex metacharacter.
This pattern should work: @"\*\w+\*" (Read: Literally '*', followed by at
least one alphanumeric character, followed by another '*')
I've applied it to this post, and it only matched on the two samples above

Also, does anyone have really GOOD regex tutorials? I read this one
http://www.regular-expressions.info/tutorial.html but that one is (imho)
still pretty hard to grasp.

Using Expresso (www.ultrapico.com) usually makes things a lot easier.
If you want a really good text on it, get J. Friedl's "Mastering Regular
Expressions".

Niki

[Razzie]

Hmm it's not 100% correct - it will match "*test*a" too (if there still is a
char after the last *.

Any ideas? (*^ doesn't seem to work either)

"Razzie" <ra****@quickne t.nl> wrote in message
news:eL******** *****@tk2msftng p13.phx.gbl...

Thanks Niki, that works! And looks better too :P

I'll have a look at Expresso too.

Thanks again!

"Niki Estner" <ni*********@cu be.net> wrote in message
news:eA******** ******@TK2MSFTN GP15.phx.gbl...

"Razzie" <ra****@quickne t.nl> wrote in
news:Os******** *****@TK2MSFTNG P11.phx.gbl...

Hey all,

Decided to give a shot at Regular expressions - need a bit of help :)

I can't seem to find the right regex for matching words like "*test*" or
*somevalue*" - in short, all words starting and ending with a *.

I tried things like string regex = @"(^*\|*^)") ;
but it still doesn't work completely (matches on "*test" too for
example). If anything could help me with this, that would be
appreciated.

You need to escape the asterix '*', because it's a regex metacharacter.
This pattern should work: @"\*\w+\*" (Read: Literally '*', followed by at
least one alphanumeric character, followed by another '*')
I've applied it to this post, and it only matched on the two samples
above

Also, does anyone have really GOOD regex tutorials? I read this one
http://www.regular-expressions.info/tutorial.html but that one is (imho)
still pretty hard to grasp.

Using Expresso (www.ultrapico.com) usually makes things a lot easier.
If you want a really good text on it, get J. Friedl's "Mastering Regular
Expressions".

Niki

[Niki Estner]

"Razzie" <ra****@quickne t.nl> wrote in
news:un******** ******@TK2MSFTN GP09.phx.gbl...

Hmm it's not 100% correct - it will match "*test*a" too (if there still is
a char after the last *.

Any ideas? (*^ doesn't seem to work either)
'^' will only match on the start of the string/line.
What kind of characters are allowed before/after your match?
You can use something like: @"(\s|^)\*\w+\* (\s|$)", or
@"(\s|^)\*\w+\* (?=\s|$)" if you only want to allow spaces around your match,
but that won't find e.g. "*test*" within "'s either.

Niki

"Razzie" <ra****@quickne t.nl> wrote in message
news:eL******** *****@tk2msftng p13.phx.gbl...

Thanks Niki, that works! And looks better too :P

I'll have a look at Expresso too.

Thanks again!

"Niki Estner" <ni*********@cu be.net> wrote in message
news:eA******** ******@TK2MSFTN GP15.phx.gbl...

"Razzie" <ra****@quickne t.nl> wrote in
news:Os******** *****@TK2MSFTNG P11.phx.gbl...
Hey all,

Decided to give a shot at Regular expressions - need a bit of help :)

I can't seem to find the right regex for matching words like "*test*"
or *somevalue*" - in short, all words starting and ending with a *.

I tried things like string regex = @"(^*\|*^)") ;
but it still doesn't work completely (matches on "*test" too for
example). If anything could help me with this, that would be
appreciated.

You need to escape the asterix '*', because it's a regex metacharacter.
This pattern should work: @"\*\w+\*" (Read: Literally '*', followed by
at least one alphanumeric character, followed by another '*')
I've applied it to this post, and it only matched on the two samples
above

Also, does anyone have really GOOD regex tutorials? I read this one
http://www.regular-expressions.info/tutorial.html but that one is
(imho) still pretty hard to grasp.

Using Expresso (www.ultrapico.com) usually makes things a lot easier.
If you want a really good text on it, get J. Friedl's "Mastering Regular
Expressions".

Niki

[Razzie]

Spaces are allowed, or linebreaks, for example when a *tag* is the only word
on the line. For example:

Customer *customer* has bought *product*.
*address*
This is a bogus line.

These should all match. However, it's not too important actually, since it
won't really happen that something is written like Hello*this*shou ld not
be*a*match*wher esoever.
So the solution you gave will work I guess, but I thought it was easy to NOT
have another char before or after a *, except spaces or linebreaks :)

"Niki Estner" <ni*********@cu be.net> wrote in message
news:ei******** ********@TK2MSF TNGP12.phx.gbl. ..

"Razzie" <ra****@quickne t.nl> wrote in
news:un******** ******@TK2MSFTN GP09.phx.gbl...

Hmm it's not 100% correct - it will match "*test*a" too (if there still
is a char after the last *.

Any ideas? (*^ doesn't seem to work either)

'^' will only match on the start of the string/line.
What kind of characters are allowed before/after your match?
You can use something like: @"(\s|^)\*\w+\* (\s|$)", or
@"(\s|^)\*\w+\* (?=\s|$)" if you only want to allow spaces around your
match, but that won't find e.g. "*test*" within "'s either.

Niki

"Razzie" <ra****@quickne t.nl> wrote in message
news:eL******** *****@tk2msftng p13.phx.gbl...

Thanks Niki, that works! And looks better too :P

I'll have a look at Expresso too.

Thanks again!

"Niki Estner" <ni*********@cu be.net> wrote in message
news:eA******** ******@TK2MSFTN GP15.phx.gbl...
"Razzie" <ra****@quickne t.nl> wrote in
news:Os******** *****@TK2MSFTNG P11.phx.gbl...
> Hey all,
>
> Decided to give a shot at Regular expressions - need a bit of help :)
>
> I can't seem to find the right regex for matching words like "*test*"
> or *somevalue*" - in short, all words starting and ending with a *.
>
> I tried things like string regex = @"(^*\|*^)") ;
> but it still doesn't work completely (matches on "*test" too for
> example). If anything could help me with this, that would be
> appreciated.

You need to escape the asterix '*', because it's a regex metacharacter.
This pattern should work: @"\*\w+\*" (Read: Literally '*', followed by
at least one alphanumeric character, followed by another '*')
I've applied it to this post, and it only matched on the two samples
above

> Also, does anyone have really GOOD regex tutorials? I read this one
> http://www.regular-expressions.info/tutorial.html but that one is
> (imho) still pretty hard to grasp.

Using Expresso (www.ultrapico.com) usually makes things a lot easier.
If you want a really good text on it, get J. Friedl's "Mastering
Regular Expressions".

Niki

[Niki Estner]

"Razzie" <ra****@quickne t.nl> wrote in
news:uo******** ********@TK2MSF TNGP12.phx.gbl. ..

Spaces are allowed, or linebreaks, for example when a *tag* is the only
word on the line. For example:

Customer *customer* has bought *product*.
If this should match, punctuation-characters must be allowed too.
*address*
This is a bogus line.

These should all match. However, it's not too important actually, since it
won't really happen that something is written like Hello*this*shou ld not
be*a*match*wher esoever.
If you want to forbid exactly these, best would probably:
@"(?<!\w)\*\w+\ *(?!\w)"
(?<!\w) and (?!\w) tell the regex to match only if there is *no*
alphanumeric character before and after the string.
So the solution you gave will work I guess, but I thought it was easy to
NOT have another char before or after a *, except spaces or linebreaks :)
And dots, and commas, and hypens, probably also parens...

Usually, this is in fact easier: '\b' will match on word-boundary, so you
can use it for "match-whole-word" searches like @"\bSomeWord\b" .
Unfortunately ' *' isn't recognized as a word boundary, as neither ' ', nor
'*' are "word" (=alphanumeric) characters.

Niki

"Niki Estner" <ni*********@cu be.net> wrote in message
news:ei******** ********@TK2MSF TNGP12.phx.gbl. ..

"Razzie" <ra****@quickne t.nl> wrote in
news:un******** ******@TK2MSFTN GP09.phx.gbl...

Hmm it's not 100% correct - it will match "*test*a" too (if there still
is a char after the last *.

Any ideas? (*^ doesn't seem to work either)

'^' will only match on the start of the string/line.
What kind of characters are allowed before/after your match?
You can use something like: @"(\s|^)\*\w+\* (\s|$)", or
@"(\s|^)\*\w+\* (?=\s|$)" if you only want to allow spaces around your
match, but that won't find e.g. "*test*" within "'s either.

Niki

"Razzie" <ra****@quickne t.nl> wrote in message
news:eL******** *****@tk2msftng p13.phx.gbl...
Thanks Niki, that works! And looks better too :P

I'll have a look at Expresso too.

Thanks again!

"Niki Estner" <ni*********@cu be.net> wrote in message
news:eA******** ******@TK2MSFTN GP15.phx.gbl...
> "Razzie" <ra****@quickne t.nl> wrote in
> news:Os******** *****@TK2MSFTNG P11.phx.gbl...
>> Hey all,
>>
>> Decided to give a shot at Regular expressions - need a bit of help :)
>>
>> I can't seem to find the right regex for matching words like "*test*"
>> or *somevalue*" - in short, all words starting and ending with a *.
>>
>> I tried things like string regex = @"(^*\|*^)") ;
>> but it still doesn't work completely (matches on "*test" too for
>> example). If anything could help me with this, that would be
>> appreciated.
>
> You need to escape the asterix '*', because it's a regex
> metacharacter.
> This pattern should work: @"\*\w+\*" (Read: Literally '*', followed by
> at least one alphanumeric character, followed by another '*')
> I've applied it to this post, and it only matched on the two samples
> above
>
>> Also, does anyone have really GOOD regex tutorials? I read this one
>> http://www.regular-expressions.info/tutorial.html but that one is
>> (imho) still pretty hard to grasp.
>
> Using Expresso (www.ultrapico.com) usually makes things a lot easier.
> If you want a really good text on it, get J. Friedl's "Mastering
> Regular Expressions".
>
> Niki
>

[Razzie]

I will try this as soon as I can :)

Thanks a lot!

"Niki Estner" <ni*********@cu be.net> wrote in message
news:eT******** ********@tk2msf tngp13.phx.gbl. ..

"Razzie" <ra****@quickne t.nl> wrote in
news:uo******** ********@TK2MSF TNGP12.phx.gbl. ..

Spaces are allowed, or linebreaks, for example when a *tag* is the only
word on the line. For example:

Customer *customer* has bought *product*.

If this should match, punctuation-characters must be allowed too.

*address*
This is a bogus line.

These should all match. However, it's not too important actually, since
it won't really happen that something is written like Hello*this*shou ld
not be*a*match*wher esoever.

If you want to forbid exactly these, best would probably:
@"(?<!\w)\*\w+\ *(?!\w)"
(?<!\w) and (?!\w) tell the regex to match only if there is *no*
alphanumeric character before and after the string.

So the solution you gave will work I guess, but I thought it was easy to
NOT have another char before or after a *, except spaces or linebreaks :)

And dots, and commas, and hypens, probably also parens...

Usually, this is in fact easier: '\b' will match on word-boundary, so you
can use it for "match-whole-word" searches like @"\bSomeWord\b" .
Unfortunately ' *' isn't recognized as a word boundary, as neither ' ',
nor '*' are "word" (=alphanumeric) characters.

Niki

"Niki Estner" <ni*********@cu be.net> wrote in message
news:ei******** ********@TK2MSF TNGP12.phx.gbl. ..

"Razzie" <ra****@quickne t.nl> wrote in
news:un******** ******@TK2MSFTN GP09.phx.gbl...
Hmm it's not 100% correct - it will match "*test*a" too (if there still
is a char after the last *.

Any ideas? (*^ doesn't seem to work either)

'^' will only match on the start of the string/line.
What kind of characters are allowed before/after your match?
You can use something like: @"(\s|^)\*\w+\* (\s|$)", or
@"(\s|^)\*\w+\* (?=\s|$)" if you only want to allow spaces around your
match, but that won't find e.g. "*test*" within "'s either.

Niki
"Razzie" <ra****@quickne t.nl> wrote in message
news:eL******** *****@tk2msftng p13.phx.gbl...
> Thanks Niki, that works! And looks better too :P
>
> I'll have a look at Expresso too.
>
> Thanks again!
>
>
>
> "Niki Estner" <ni*********@cu be.net> wrote in message
> news:eA******** ******@TK2MSFTN GP15.phx.gbl...
>> "Razzie" <ra****@quickne t.nl> wrote in
>> news:Os******** *****@TK2MSFTNG P11.phx.gbl...
>>> Hey all,
>>>
>>> Decided to give a shot at Regular expressions - need a bit of help
>>> :)
>>>
>>> I can't seem to find the right regex for matching words like
>>> "*test*" or *somevalue*" - in short, all words starting and ending
>>> with a *.
>>>
>>> I tried things like string regex = @"(^*\|*^)") ;
>>> but it still doesn't work completely (matches on "*test" too for
>>> example). If anything could help me with this, that would be
>>> appreciated.
>>
>> You need to escape the asterix '*', because it's a regex
>> metacharacter.
>> This pattern should work: @"\*\w+\*" (Read: Literally '*', followed
>> by at least one alphanumeric character, followed by another '*')
>> I've applied it to this post, and it only matched on the two samples
>> above
>>
>>> Also, does anyone have really GOOD regex tutorials? I read this one
>>> http://www.regular-expressions.info/tutorial.html but that one is
>>> (imho) still pretty hard to grasp.
>>
>> Using Expresso (www.ultrapico.com) usually makes things a lot easier.
>> If you want a really good text on it, get J. Friedl's "Mastering
>> Regular Expressions".
>>
>> Niki
>>
>
>