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regular expression question

PJ6
Is it possible for a regular expression to macth only an empty string? What
I want is exactly {0}, but that causes the parser to throw an exception -

parsing "{0}" - Quantifier {x,y} following nothing.

Duh, I want nothing. Maybe I need an expression that evaluates to "not
anything?" I can't find that either.

Paul
May 1 '07 #1
7 5873
On May 1, 8:23 am, "PJ6" <n...@nowhere.netwrote:
Is it possible for a regular expression to macth only an empty string? What
I want is exactly {0}, but that causes the parser to throw an exception -

parsing "{0}" - Quantifier {x,y} following nothing.

Duh, I want nothing. Maybe I need an expression that evaluates to "not
anything?" I can't find that either.

Paul
Just to make sure I know what you're asking, could you provide the
string you are searching and exactly what you want returned?

For example:

In the string "This is a sentence "{0}" that has the target phrase
in it."

The regex pattern "(?<=\{).*(?=\})" will return just the character
0.

The regex pattern "(?<="").*(?="")" will return {0}

If this isn't what you are looking for I need that extra info I
mentioned above.

Thanks,

Seth Rowe

May 1 '07 #2
PJ6 wrote:
Is it possible for a regular expression to macth only an empty
string?
In what context? Why aren't
if stringVar is nothing then...
or
if Len(stringVar)=0 then...

sufficient?
What I want is exactly {0}, but that causes the parser to
throw an exception -
parsing "{0}" - Quantifier {x,y} following nothing.
Surely you would want exactly 1 nothing, not zero nothings?

Andrew
May 1 '07 #3
en
>What I want is exactly {0}, but that causes the parser to
>throw an exception -
parsing "{0}" - Quantifier {x,y} following nothing.
Surely you would want exactly 1 nothing, not zero nothings?


I tend to agree.
If you want to detect empty strings (ie nothing) then regular expressions
seem like overkill.
The best method I would advise would be...
-------------------------------------------------------------
Myvar = String.Empty
-------------------------------------------------------------

This will also check for string = Nothing

--
Rory
May 1 '07 #4
PJ6
I'm working with a validator that takes a regular expression string. I need
it to accept a certin range of values, or a completely empty value. I use |
for the OR condition. I now believe it is difficult, if not impossible, to
create a regular expresion that _only_ matches "", the empty string.

Paul

<enwrote in message
news:b0*************************@msnews.microsoft. com...
>>What I want is exactly {0}, but that causes the parser to
throw an exception -
parsing "{0}" - Quantifier {x,y} following nothing.
Surely you would want exactly 1 nothing, not zero nothings?

I tend to agree.
If you want to detect empty strings (ie nothing) then regular expressions
seem like overkill.
The best method I would advise would be...
-------------------------------------------------------------
Myvar =
String.Empty -------------------------------------------------------------

This will also check for string = Nothing

--
Rory


May 2 '07 #5
On May 2, 11:43 am, "PJ6" <n...@nowhere.netwrote:
I'm working with a validator that takes a regular expression string. I need
it to accept a certin range of values, or a completely empty value. I use |
for the OR condition. I now believe it is difficult, if not impossible, to
create a regular expresion that _only_ matches "", the empty string.

Paul

<enwrote in message

news:b0*************************@msnews.microsoft. com...
>What I want is exactly {0}, but that causes the parser to
throw an exception -
parsing "{0}" - Quantifier {x,y} following nothing.
Surely you would want exactly 1 nothing, not zero nothings?
I tend to agree.
If you want to detect empty strings (ie nothing) then regular expressions
seem like overkill.
The best method I would advise would be...
-------------------------------------------------------------
Myvar =
String.Empty -------------------------------------------------------------
This will also check for string = Nothing
--
Rory
I'm working with a validator that takes a regular expression string
Is this a Asp.Net project?

Thanks,

Seth Rowe

May 2 '07 #6
PJ6
Is this a Asp.Net project?
>
Thanks,

Seth Rowe
Ha ha ha. Yes, you got me. I discovered shortly after I posed the question
that the pattern validator isn't even called when the control to be
validated is empty, and I had forgotten to remove a RequiredFieldValidator,
which immediately solved my problem.

So the question as it stands now is purely academic.

;)

Paul
May 3 '07 #7
PJ6 wrote:
So the question as it stands now is purely academic.
And easy to solve. Match whatever you want zero or one times. The
pattern "^(\d{4})?$" for example matches either four digits or an empty
string.

--
Göran Andersson
_____
http://www.guffa.com
May 3 '07 #8

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