Replace multiple characters in a C# string

c# .net string
zgirod picture zgirod · Sep 1, 2011 · Viewed 267.6k times · Source

Is there a better way to replace strings?

I am surprised that Replace does not take in a character array or string array. I guess that I could write my own extension but I was curious if there is a better built in way to do the following? Notice the last Replace is a string not a character.

myString.Replace(';', '\n').Replace(',', '\n').Replace('\r', '\n').Replace('\t', '\n').Replace(' ', '\n').Replace("\n\n", "\n");

Answer

johnluetke picture johnluetke · Sep 1, 2011

You can use a replace regular expression.

s/[;,\t\r ]|[\n]{2}/\n/g
  • s/ at the beginning means a search
  • The characters between [ and ] are the characters to search for (in any order)
  • The second / delimits the search-for text and the replace text

In English, this reads:

"Search for ; or , or \t or \r or (space) or exactly two sequential \n and replace it with \n"

In C#, you could do the following: (after importing System.Text.RegularExpressions)

Regex pattern = new Regex("[;,\t\r ]|[\n]{2}");
pattern.Replace(myString, "\n");

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