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Home/ Questions/Q 7767611
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Editorial Team
Asked: June 1, 20262026-06-01T15:43:14+00:00 2026-06-01T15:43:14+00:00

I am trying to write out a regex to get each insert line from

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I am trying to write out a regex to get each insert line from a SQL script. When I use the .NET Regex Tester on Regex Hero I get my expected 8 matches. However, when I run this snippit as a console app it returns no matches.

const string text =
@"INSERT INTO [AdminPrefs] ( [SpayClinic] , [VaxClinic] , [ShelterClinic] , [DateModified] , [Prefix] , [UpdateCounter] , [LockedRecs] , [dbName] , [Timer] , [MedCtrClinic] , [OtherClinic] , [Da2PPPx] , [Da2PPEPx] , [FVRCPPx] , [FVRCPEPx] , [FELVTPx] , [FELVTEPx] , [FELVVPx] , [FELVVEPx] , [HWTPx] , [HWTEPx] , [RabiesPx] , [RabiesEPx] , [FIVTest] , [FIVTestE] , [OnePlusChar] , [XSHWMPx] , [XSHWMEPx] , [SHWMPx] , [SHWMEPx] , [MHWMPx] , [MHWMEPx] , [LHWMPx] , [LHWMEPx] , [DebuggerOn] , [PayThisAmount] , [free6] , [XSHWMPillPx] , [XSHWMPillEPx] , [SHWMPillPx] , [SHWMPillEPx] , [MHWMPillPx] , [MHWMPillEPx] , [LHWMPillPx] , [LHWMPillEPx] , [free7] , [free8] , [free9] , [XSPMPx] , [XSPMEPx] , [SPMPx] , [SPMEPx] , [MPMPx] , [MPMEPx] , [LPMPx] , [LPMEPx] , [ReceiptFooter] , [MonthsUntilBenefits] , [free12] , [XSPMPillPx] , [XSPMPillEPx] , [SPMPillPx] , [SPMPillEPx] , [MPMPillPx] , [MPMPillEPx] , [LPMPillPx] , [LPMPillEPx] , [free14] , [ClinicName] , [ShelterName] , [ShelterAbbr] , [Address1] , [Address2] , [City] , [State] , [ZipCode] , [MainPhone] , [MainFax] , [SplashPict] , [free17] , [free18] , [LicenseNo] , [SerialNo] , [free20] , [free21] , [free22] , [VLogCC] , [SNLogCC] , [free23] , [free24] , [free25] , [AgeAndBDay] , [free26] , [free27] , [free28] , [CurrRouteNum] )
VALUES
(12 , 7 , 0 , '0000/00/00 00:00:00:00' , '' , 0 , '' , '' , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , '' , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , '' , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , '' , '' , '' , '' , '' , '' , '' , '' , '' , '' , X'5443503408' , 0 , 0 , '' , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , '' , '' , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0),
(15 , 53 , 0 , '0000/00/00 00:00:00:00' , '' , 0 , '' , '' , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , '' , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , '' , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , '' , '' , '' , '' , '' , '' , '' , '' , '' , '' , X'5443503408' , 0 , 0 , '' , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , '' , '' , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0),
(20 , 216 , 0 , '0000/00/00 00:00:00:00' , '' , 0 , '' , '' , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , '' , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , '' , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , '' , '' , '' , '' , '' , '' , '' , '' , '' , '' , X'5443503408' , 0 , 0 , '' , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , '' , '' , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0),
(16 , 8 , 0 , '0000/00/00 00:00:00:00' , '' , 0 , '' , '' , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , '' , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , '' , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , '' , '' , '' , '' , '' , '' , '' , '' , '' , '' , X'5443503408' , 0 , 0 , '' , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , '' , '' , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0);

INSERT INTO [AdminPrefs] ( [SpayClinic] , [VaxClinic] , [ShelterClinic] , [DateModified] , [Prefix] , [UpdateCounter] , [LockedRecs] , [dbName] , [Timer] , [MedCtrClinic] , [OtherClinic] , [Da2PPPx] , [Da2PPEPx] , [FVRCPPx] , [FVRCPEPx] , [FELVTPx] , [FELVTEPx] , [FELVVPx] , [FELVVEPx] , [HWTPx] , [HWTEPx] , [RabiesPx] , [RabiesEPx] , [FIVTest] , [FIVTestE] , [OnePlusChar] , [XSHWMPx] , [XSHWMEPx] , [SHWMPx] , [SHWMEPx] , [MHWMPx] , [MHWMEPx] , [LHWMPx] , [LHWMEPx] , [DebuggerOn] , [PayThisAmount] , [free6] , [XSHWMPillPx] , [XSHWMPillEPx] , [SHWMPillPx] , [SHWMPillEPx] , [MHWMPillPx] , [MHWMPillEPx] , [LHWMPillPx] , [LHWMPillEPx] , [free7] , [free8] , [free9] , [XSPMPx] , [XSPMEPx] , [SPMPx] , [SPMEPx] , [MPMPx] , [MPMEPx] , [LPMPx] , [LPMEPx] , [ReceiptFooter] , [MonthsUntilBenefits] , [free12] , [XSPMPillPx] , [XSPMPillEPx] , [SPMPillPx] , [SPMPillEPx] , [MPMPillPx] , [MPMPillEPx] , [LPMPillPx] , [LPMPillEPx] , [free14] , [ClinicName] , [ShelterName] , [ShelterAbbr] , [Address1] , [Address2] , [City] , [State] , [ZipCode] , [MainPhone] , [MainFax] , [SplashPict] , [free17] , [free18] , [LicenseNo] , [SerialNo] , [free20] , [free21] , [free22] , [VLogCC] , [SNLogCC] , [free23] , [free24] , [free25] , [AgeAndBDay] , [free26] , [free27] , [free28] , [CurrRouteNum] )
VALUES
(26 , 5 , 0 , '0000/00/00 00:00:00:00' , '' , 0 , '' , '' , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , '' , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , '' , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , '' , '' , '' , '' , '' , '' , '' , '' , '' , '' , X'5443503408' , 0 , 0 , '' , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , '' , '' , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0),
(18 , 12 , 0 , '0000/00/00 00:00:00:00' , '' , 0 , '' , '' , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , '' , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , '' , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , '' , '' , '' , '' , '' , '' , '' , '' , '' , '' , X'5443503408' , 0 , 0 , '' , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , '' , '' , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0),
(9 , 10 , 0 , '0000/00/00 00:00:00:00' , '' , 0 , '' , '' , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , '' , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , '' , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , '' , '' , '' , '' , '' , '' , '' , '' , '' , '' , X'5443503408' , 0 , 0 , '' , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , '' , '' , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0),
(2 , 72 , 0 , '0000/00/00 00:00:00:00' , '' , 0 , '' , '' , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , '' , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , '' , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , '' , '' , '' , '' , '' , '' , '' , '' , '' , '' , X'5443503408' , 0 , 0 , '' , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , '' , '' , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0);
";

static void Main(string[] args)
{
    string query = @"^\(.*?\)(,|;)$";

    var matches = Regex.Matches(text, query, RegexOptions.Singleline | RegexOptions.Multiline);

    Console.WriteLine("Expected Matches: 8");
    Console.WriteLine("Matches Found: {0}", matches.Count);

    Console.ReadLine();
}

My options are exactly the same for the website and my code (Multiline and Singleline) any they should be using the same .NET regex engine, so what is causing the difference between the two?


Final Results:

For all those curious my final Regex was

@"(?<=^\()                       # The beginning of a line followed by a (
((('(?<c>.*?)'(?!')(?=[\s\)])) | # Text string in SQL supports line breaks
  (?<c>-?[\d\.]+) |              # Any numbers
  (X'(?<c>[0-9a-f]*)')           # Something formatted like X'0123456789abcdef'
  )(\s,\s)?                      # Spaces and commas between the records
)+                               # Repeat the pattern at least one time
(?=(?<!'')\)[;,]\r?$)            # The End of the line ending with ); or ), and not immediately proceeded by ''";     

Note to all those planning to use this for R&D (rip-off and deploy) development this only works for my SQL because it is very regular. It would require tweaking to handle many edge cases that I do not need to deal with if used with SQL that was not generated by my 3rd party program.

Here is the full code of the parsing code of the parser. Hopefully it will help someone else who is stuck on something similar.

foreach (var tableFolder in Directory.GetDirectories(_exportFolder))
{
    //Popluate the schema of the DataTable
    DataTable table = new DataTable();
    using (SqlDataAdapter ada = new SqlDataAdapter(String.Format("Select top 0 * from [{0}]", Path.GetFileName(tableFolder)), conn))
    {
        ada.Fill(table);
    }

    //All of the files to import for this table
    string[] filePaths = Directory.GetFiles(tableFolder, "*.sql");

    foreach (string file in filePaths)
    {
        string text;
        using (var txtRdr = new StreamReader(file))
        {
            text = txtRdr.ReadToEnd();
        }

        const string recordRegex =
                        @"(?<=^\()                       #The begining of a line followed by a (
                        ((('(?<s>.*?)'(?!')(?=[\s\)])) | # Something formatted like 'some text' supports line breaks
                            (?<n>-?[\d\.]+) |            # Any numbers
                            (X'(?<h>[0-9a-f]*)')         # Something formatted like X'0123456789abcdef'
                            )(\s,\s)?                    # Spaces and commas between the records
                        )+                               # Repeat the pattern at least one time
                        (?=(?<!'')\)[;,]\r?$)            # The End of the line ending with ); or ), and not immedatly proceded by ''";            

        //Creates one match per row in the database
        var records = Regex.Matches(text, recordRegex, RegexOptions.Singleline | RegexOptions.Multiline | RegexOptions.IgnorePatternWhitespace | RegexOptions.IgnoreCase | RegexOptions.ExplicitCapture);

        const string headerRegex = @"^INSERT\sINTO\s\[[\w_\-\s]+\]\s\(\s(?:\[([\w_\-\s]+)\]\s(?:,\s)?)+\)";
        var header = Regex.Match(text, headerRegex).Groups[1].Captures.Cast<Capture>().ToArray();

        foreach (Match record in records)
        {
            //Due to how we captured the 3 groups we had to put them back in order in one list.
            var columns = record.Groups.Cast<Group>()
                                .Skip(1)  //Groups[0] contins the entire record.
                                .SelectMany(group => group.Captures.Cast<Capture>()) //Flattens all of the captures in the three groups in to one list
                                .OrderBy(capture => capture.Index) //Reorder the combined list as the SelectMany will not be outputting the correct order.
                                .ToArray(); 

            DataRow row = table.NewRow();
            for (int i = 0; i < columns.Length; i++)
            {
                Type columnType = table.Columns[header[i].Value].DataType;
                if (columnType == typeof(String))
                {
                    row[header[i].Value] = columns[i].Value;
                }
                else if (columnType == typeof(Int32))
                {
                    row[header[i].Value] = Convert.ToInt32(columns[i].Value);
                }
                else if (columnType == typeof(Double))
                {
                    row[header[i].Value] = Convert.ToDouble(columns[i].Value);
                }
                else if (columnType == typeof(Boolean))
                {
                    if (columns[i].Value == "0")
                        row[header[i].Value] = false;
                    else if (columns[i].Value == "1")
                        row[header[i].Value] = true;
                    else
                        throw new InvalidDataException();
                }
                else if (columnType == typeof(Int16))
                {
                    row[header[i].Value] = Convert.ToInt16(columns[i].Value);
                }
                else if (columnType == typeof(Byte[]))
                {
                    row[header[i].Value] = StringToByteArray(columns[i].Value);
                }
                else
                {
                    throw new NotImplementedException();
                }

            }
            table.Rows.Add(row);
        }

        using (var bulkCopy = new SqlBulkCopy(conn))
        {
            bulkCopy.DestinationTableName = Path.GetFileName(tableFolder);
            bulkCopy.BulkCopyTimeout = 0;
            bulkCopy.WriteToServer(table);
        }
    }
}

Update:

By renameing the caputre groups to all the same name .NET’s regex engine combines them for me, that simplifies

var columns = record.Groups[1].Cast<Group>().Skip(1).SelectMany(group => group.Captures.Cast<Capture>()).OrderBy(capture => capture.Index).ToArray();

to

var columns = record.Groups[1].Captures.Cast<Capture>().ToArray();
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1 Answer

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  1. Editorial Team
    Editorial Team
    2026-06-01T15:43:15+00:00Added an answer on June 1, 2026 at 3:43 pm

    Note that toggling the “CrLf marks a line ending” setting on the Regex Hero page causes the 8 lines to stop being matched; this is a clue as to what’s causing the problem.

    In your C# code, the line breaks within the literal string are encoded as a CR/LF pair ("\r\n"). The $ in the regex (that matches an end-of-line in Multiline mode) only matches the \n character. Thus, there is an extra \r character between the final comma (or semicolon) which the regex doesn’t account for, and the match fails.

    Some ways you could address this problem include:

    1. Strip the carriage returns: text = text.Replace("\r\n", "\n");, or
    2. Match the carriage returns: string query = @"^\(.*?\)(,|;)\r$";
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