Remove whitespace from number within text in VB.NET

Question

Hi,

I have text like this format

"term: 156^^^:^^59 datainput" Or "term: 156^^^:59 datainput" or "term: 156:^^^59"

The "^" represented white space. Notice the white space between the the two numbers and the colon. There 2, 3, 4 or even 7 white space between the two number. I want to remove these white space so that the text can be in this format :

"term: 156:59 datainput"

which is no more space between the the two number -> 156:56. I want to remove the white space between the number and the colon only.

Thanks for any input.

Answer 1

Try the following

Dim result = Regex.Replace(input, "(\d)\s*:\s*(\d)", "$1:$2")

This uses a regular expression to match the spaces in between the numbers and the colons. Any pattern such as this will be replaced with the last argument. The $1 and $2 are escape sequences which say "replace with text matched by the first and second parenthesis". In this case it will be a single digit.

Answer 2

I think regex will help handle the different number of whitespace characaters.

 Dim text As String = "term: 156      :     59 datainput "
 text = Regex.Replace(text, "([0-9])\s*:\s*([0-9])", "$1:$2", RegexOptions.Singleline)