Question

I want to create an application for a mailing (not digital).
The idea is that the user creates a template in word (saved under RTF, already gave up on .doc).
Heres an example of template (in rtf):

“Happy Birthday [Username], …..”

Replacing the [Username] field with a specific text is easy. What I want to do however is find all strings beginning with ‘[‘ and ending with ‘]’ effectively. So I can give the users of my app the ability to chose which databasefield goes where.

This is what I got so far:

    System.Windows.Forms.RichTextBox rtBox = new System.Windows.Forms.RichTextBox();
    string s = System.IO.File.ReadAllText(path);
    Regex regex = new Regex(@"\[.*\] ");
    rtBox.Rtf = s;
    var Matches = regex.Matches(rtBox.Rtf);
    int i = 0;
    while(i < Matches.Count) {
        MessageBox.Show(Matches[i].ToString());
        i++;
    }

This code however doesn’t work as expected, if 2 parameters would be on 1 line (eg: “Happy bday [FirstName] [LastName]” the regex match is [*FirstName][LastName]*, not 2 separate.

Thanks!

Answer 1

Use @"\[.*?\]" as pattern

var arr = Regex.Matches("[FirstName] [LastName]", @"\[.*?\]")
           .Cast<Match>()
           .Select(x => x.Value)
           .ToArray();