find a string pattern in richtextbox

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sorry if this is a stupid question but how do i find a pattern in richtextbox??

the text is like :

hello i want to {help|meet|call} you.

i want to find all such strings which have curly braces and then replace the whole string with any word from within it, RANDOMLY.

so on the click of a button the above line might become :

hello i want to help you.
OR
hello i want to call you.

i thought of using regex but iam completely blank on how to use it, also i didnt understand some tutorials on google.

Posted 31-Jul-10 3:21am

amit_upadhyay

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OriginalGriff 1-Aug-10 3:44am

Change the regex as show in revised answer - '[' and ']' are "match any char in this list" and starting with '^' says "match any character NOT in this list". Your original example din't show two sets of matches in the same line, so I didn't consider that case. Go to www.ultrapico.com and get a copy of Expresso - it helps explain and design regexes. It's free, it really works and I wish I'd written it!

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OriginalGriff · Accepted Answer · 2010-07-31T04:00:00

You can do it with an advanced Regex - it is the random bit that means you need anything complex:

Random r = new Random();
private void butRegex_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
    //string stringWithTextIn = "hello i want to {help|meet|call} you.";
    string stringWithTextIn = "hello i want to {help|meet|call} you {please|come|soon}.";
    // Regex regex = new Regex(@"({.*})");
    Regex regex = new Regex(@"({[^}]*})");
    string r = regex.Replace(stringWithTextIn, new MatchEvaluator(ReplaceMatch));
    MessageBox.Show(r);
    }
string ReplaceMatch(Match m)
    {
    string s = m.Value;                     // Get matched text only
    s = s.Substring(1, s.Length - 2);       // Remove '{' and '}'
    string[] parts = s.Split('|');          // Break into words
    return parts[r.Next(0,parts.Length)];   // return randow word
    }

[edit]Changed Regex and test string as shown - new version specifically until closing '}' character[/edit]