Wildcard String Search

[Cliff]

Hello

I'm trying to search for each instance of a string (using wildcards) in another string. I know there is the Like operator, but it seems to be work with booleans and I want to define a string variable.

I tried strPdfFileName = strPdfFileName Like "########.pdf"

I'm sure there's a better string methd to better accomplish what I'm doing here.

Thans in advance - Cliff
Function ExtractPdfFileNames(ByVal strSourceText As String) As ArrayList

Dim arrFoundPdfFileNames As New ArrayList()
Dim strPdfFileName As String

'define what a pdf filename looks like
strPdfFileName = 'here is where I want to define ".pdf" and 8 digits to the left (i.e. "13567849.pdf") _
or even any word ending in ".pdf"

'copy pdf filenames from source text into arraylist
For Each strPdfFileName In strSourceText
arrFoundPdfFileNames.Add(strPdfFileName)
Next

'return the results
Return arrFoundPdfFileNames

End Function

[Cor]

Hi Cliff,

Have a look at the regular expressions for that

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/de...xpressions.asp

I hope this helps

Cor

[Herfried K. Wagner [MVP]]

Please don't post in HTML format!

Regards,
Herfried
--
Herfried K. Wagner
Microsoft MVP

[Herfried K. Wagner [MVP]]

Please don't post in HTML format!

Regards,
Herfried
--
Herfried K. Wagner
Microsoft MVP

[Cliff]

Thanks for the help, but I must be totally dense. I tried working with the
MSDN example below, but the Capture Class example seemed way too complicated
for my needs. i.e. I couldn't decipher:

Dim pat As String = "(?<1>\w+)\s+(?<2>fish)\s*"

I don't know if anyone can give me a really simple example from my original
code below.

Thank you! - Cliff
"Cor" <no*@non.com> wrote in message
news:e2**************@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...

Hi Cliff,

Have a look at the regular expressions for that

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/de...xpressions.asp
I hope this helps

Cor

"Cliff" <sw*****@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:Ak4Ub.3062$G74.746@clgrps13...
Hello

I'm trying to search for each instance of a string (using wildcards) in
another string. I know there is the Like operator, but it seems to be work
with Booleans and I want to define a string variable.

I tried strPdfFileName = strPdfFileName Like "########.pdf"

I'm sure there's a better string methd to better accomplish what I'm doing
here.

Thanks in advance - Cliff
Function ExtractPdfFileNames(ByVal strSourceText As String) As ArrayList

Dim arrFoundPdfFileNames As New ArrayList()
Dim strPdfFileName As String

'define what a pdf filename looks like
strPdfFileName = 'here is where I want to define ".pdf" and 8 digits
to the left (i.e. "13567849.pdf") _
or even any word ending in ".pdf"

'copy pdf filenames from source text into arraylist
For Each strPdfFileName In strSourceText
arrFoundPdfFileNames.Add(strPdfFileName)
Next
'return the results
Return arrFoundPdfFileNames

End Function