How to set windows path regex pattern?

Question

I have a list of paths, and I need a match for all starting with C:\Program Files\_folder_\_folder_\etc and then having any amount and any type of character a windows path can use. This is how I approach, though I guess this only allows alpanumeric characters:

string pathPattern = @"C:\Program Files\_folder_\_folder_\etc[0-z]*";
if (System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.IsMatch(myList[n], pathPattern, System.Text.RegularExpressions.RegexOptions.IgnoreCase)
    {
        //some action
    }

you mean this part `C:\Program Files\_folder_\_folder_\etc` doen't change in path? — ElectricRouge, Mar 20 '14 at 10:34

ElectricRouge · Accepted Answer · 2014-03-20T11:16:37.763

2

If C:\Program Files\_folder_\_folder_\etc is the pre-defined part. I think you can do this without Regex like this using Contains

if(pathPattern.Contains(@"C:\Program Files\_folder_\_folder_\etc"))
{
    //some action
}

Edit 1: You can do ToLower() on pathPattern

var ss = pathPattern.ToLower().Contains(@"C:\Program Files\_folder_\_folder_\etc".ToLower());

edited Mar 20 '14 at 11:16

answered Mar 20 '14 at 10:50

ElectricRouge

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Thank you again. I also found this regarding the case sensitivity issue: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/444798/case-insensitive-containsstring – fishmong3r Mar 20 '14 at 12:45

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 20 '14 at 11:04

1. If you want your path should starts with :

C:\Program Files\

then use below code :

if (Regex.IsMatch(code, @"[cC]{1}\:\\Program Files\\.*"))
{
   \\ Do Your work
}

2. If you want your path should starts with :

c:\Program Files_folder__folder_\

then use below code :

if (Regex.IsMatch(code, @"[cC]{1}\:\\Program Files\\_folder_\\_folder_\\.*"))
{
    \\ Do Your work
}

Description:

cC{1} : Check for C drive (c:)
@"[cC]{1}\:\Program Files\ : Check for C:\Program Files
.* : Checks for any folder after C:\Program Files

Pratik Bhoir · Answer 3 · 2014-03-20T11:03:41.283

0

Try this regex

^(?:[a-zA-Z]\:|\\\\[\w\.]+\\[\w.$]+)\\(?:[\w]+\\)*\w([\w.])+$

Sample Code

string path = @"C:\Program Files\_folder_\_folder_\";
string pathPattern = @"^(?:[a-zA-Z]\:|\\\\[\w\.]+\\[\w.$]+)\\(?:[\w]+\\)*\w([\w.])+$"

if(System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.IsMatch(path, pathPattern)){
    //It matches the regex
}
else
{
    //it doesnot matches the regex
}

Works for these:

\\test\test$\TEST.xls
\\server\share\folder\myfile.txt
\\server\share\myfile.txt
\\123.123.123.123\share\folder\myfile.txt
c:\folder\myfile.txt
c:\folder\myfileWithoutExtension

edited Mar 20 '14 at 11:03

answered Mar 20 '14 at 10:34

Pratik Bhoir

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could you explain this regex..? As someone who is not a regex expert I would love to see what it actually does – default Mar 20 '14 at 10:35
Yes please let us know what it does, and which characters does it match exactly, and how to merge this with the pre-defined part of path in the begining. – fishmong3r Mar 20 '14 at 10:48
You don't understand what I want... The path can be literally anything, and the patter should be 'C:\Program Files\_folder_\_folder_\+AnyCharacter' – fishmong3r Mar 20 '14 at 11:02
So you want to match all the list with the pattern and return true if all of them matches and return false if not. Is is something like that – Pratik Bhoir Mar 20 '14 at 11:14

How to set windows path regex pattern?

3 Answers3