Comparing string

Question

Is there any method that allow us to return true if string a likes string b formality?

Exam:

 "12:2".Like("*:*") = true

or

 "what is your name?".Like("*is*name*?")=true

Thanks!

use regex or use VB.NET and it's [`Like`-operator](http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/swf8kaxw.aspx) — Tim Schmelter, Nov 11 '14 at 08:38
possible duplicate of [Need to perform Wildcard (\*,?, etc) search on a string using Regex](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6907720/need-to-perform-wildcard-etc-search-on-a-string-using-regex) — fejesjoco, Nov 11 '14 at 08:41
thanks @Vajura and everybody,Regex is the solution, thanks for your help ! — Đoàn Minh Tiến, Nov 11 '14 at 08:51

Manwal · Answer 1 · 2014-11-11T08:53:27.907

2

You can use this following function using Regular Expression

Regex.IsMatch("string", "your expression")

Instance following line should return true:

Regex.IsMatch("12:2", "/[0-9]{2,}:[0-9]{1,}/")

Note: This way you have to create exp every time for different format

edited Nov 11 '14 at 08:53

answered Nov 11 '14 at 08:42

Manwal

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Pavel Vladov · Answer 2 · 2014-11-11T09:00:00.127

You can use the following method to check whether a given string matches a DOS like pattern with wildcards (i.e. a pattern that denotes one character with '?' and zero or more characters with '*'):

public static bool IsMatch(string str, string pattern)
{
    string regexString = "^" + Regex.Escape(pattern).Replace("\\*", ".*").Replace("\\?", ".") + "$";
    Regex regex = new Regex(regexString);
    return regex.IsMatch(regexString);
}

You can call it like this:

bool match = IsMatch("what is your name?", "*is*name*?"); // Returns true

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 11 '14 at 09:00

You can use the following not-optimized method. The function may does not take into account some cases, but i think it gives you a point to start from.

Another possible solution is to you Regular Expressions

        public static bool Like(string pattern, string str)
        {
            string[] words = pattern.Split('*').Where(w => w.Trim() != string.Empty).ToArray();

            List<int> indeces = new List<int>();

            for (int i = 0, l = words.Length; i < l; i++)
            {
                int wordIndex = str.IndexOf(words[i], StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase);

                if (wordIndex == -1)
                    return false;
                else
                    indeces.Add(wordIndex);
            }

            List<int> sortedIndeces = indeces.ToList();
            sortedIndeces.Sort();

            for (int i = 0, l = sortedIndeces.Count; i < l; i++)
            {
                if (sortedIndeces[i] != indeces[i]) return false;
            }

            return true;
        }

Good Luck

Comparing string

3 Answers3