Simple regex - replace quote information in forum topic in C#

Question

Hi!

This should be pretty straightforward I would think.

I have this string:

[quote=Joe Johnson|1]Hi![/quote]

Which should be replaced with something like

<div class="quote">Hi!<div><a href="users/details/1">JoeJohnson</a></div></div>

I'm pretty shure this is not going very well. So far I have this:

Regex regexQuote = new Regex(@"\[quote\=(.*?)\|(.*?)\](.*?)\[\/quote\]");

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Any help appreciated!

Answer 1

Try this:

string pattern = @"\[quote=(.*?)\|(\d+)\]([\s\S]*?)\[/quote\]";
string replacement = 
  @"<div class=""quote"">$3<div><a href=""users/details/$2"">$1</a></div></div>";

Console.WriteLine(
    Regex.Replace(input, pattern, replacement));

Answer 2

this should be your regex in dot net:

\[quote\=(?<name>(.*))\|(?<id>(.*))\](?<content>(.*))\[\/quote\]

        string name = regexQuote.Match().Groups["name"];
        string id = regexQuote.Match().Groups["id"];
        //..

Answer 3

why didn't you said you want to deal with nested tags as well...

i've barely ever worked with regex, but here the thing:

    static string ReplaceQuoteTags(string input)
    {
        const string closeTag = @"[/quote]";
        const string pattern = @"\[quote=(.*?)\|(\d+?)\](.*?)\[/quote\]"; //or whatever you prefer
        const string replacement = @"<div class=""quote"">{0}<div><a href=""users/details/{1}"">{2}</a></div></div>";

        int searchStartIndex = 0;
        int closeTagIndex = input.IndexOf(closeTag, StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase);

        while (closeTagIndex > -1)
        {
            Regex r = new Regex(pattern, RegexOptions.RightToLeft | RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);

            bool found = false;
            input = r.Replace(input,
                x =>
                {
                    found = true;
                    return string.Format(replacement, x.Groups[3], x.Groups[2], x.Groups[1]);
                }
                , 1, closeTagIndex + closeTag.Length);

            if (!found)
            {
                searchStartIndex = closeTagIndex + closeTag.Length;
                //in case there is a close tag without a proper corresond open tag.
            }

            closeTagIndex = input.IndexOf(closeTag, searchStartIndex, StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase);
        }

        return input;
    }