Question

Here is my code:

    Dim StartString As String = "Private Sub"
    Dim EndString As String = "End Sub"

    Dim SearchString As String = StartString & "(.+)" & EndString

    Dim Data() As String = New Regex(SearchString).Matches(Text).Cast(Of Match).Select(Function(m) m.Groups(1).Value).ToArray

This is the value of Text:

Public Class Form1

Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click

    Dim x As Integer

    x = 10
    MessageBox.Show(x / "Simon")

End Sub

Private Function Test()

    Dim x As Integer

    x = 30
    MessageBox.Show(x / "Test")

End Function

End Class

How come my Data array is not populated with any data?

Answer 1

I suspect it’s because you are attempting to make your pattern match over multiple lines.

The . character matches anything except newline \n, and the body of the Private Sub/End Sub you want to match has newlines in it.

You have to enable the regex option SingleLine (see the msdn for regular expressions):

SingleLine
Has nothing to do with how many lines are in the input
string. Rather, will cause the . (period) metacharacter to match any
character, instead of any character except \n, which is the default.

So, try New Regex(SearchString,RegexOptions.SingleLine) instead of New Regex(SearchString).