Wildcard search on List of string

Question

_{Wednesday, April 13, 2016 3:36 PM}

I have a list of string and want to do wildcard search.

      List<string> list = new List<string>();
            list.Add("Hi how are you.");
            list.Add("are you there.");
            list.Add("How is it?.");
            list.Add("are you OK?");

in above list, i like to search like %are%you% which should return me 3 result. If i use Oracle then like query words well.

your assistance in this regard is deeply appreciated.

All replies (6)

_{Wednesday, April 13, 2016 5:25 PM ✅Answered}

Mdew : Is this what you are looking for ?

  List<string> list = new List<string>();
            list.Add("Hi how are you.");
            list.Add("are you there.");
            list.Add("How is it?.");
            list.Add("are you OK?");

            List<string> result = list.Where(x => x.Contains("are you")).ToList();
            var count = result.Count;
            Console.WriteLine(count);
            if (count > 0)
            {

                foreach (var item in result) Console.WriteLine("{0}", item);

            }

_{Thursday, April 14, 2016 6:47 AM ✅Answered}

Try this:

    List<string> result = list.Where( s => Regex.IsMatch( s, "are.*?you" ) ).ToList();

Similar to “%”, it will also detect “are” and “you” which are parts of other words. (Example: “Dare to be yourself”). The Regular Expression can be improved if you need non-Oracle search.

_{Thursday, April 14, 2016 6:06 AM}

Thanks Magnus for your reply. But its not my objective. I like to search "%are%you%" same that we do in Oracle.

_{Thursday, April 14, 2016 6:58 AM}

Thanks Viorel. It works

_{Thursday, April 14, 2016 7:02 AM}

this search result 3 output out of 4. 

'are you' is not the first word in first list. Can we do anything to block it in search list? if i put % at initial then it should come.

_{Thursday, April 14, 2016 7:54 AM}

'are you' is not the first word in first list. Can we do anything to block it in search list? if i put % at initial then it should come.

@mdew,

If you don't want "Hi how are you.", please try the following code,

  List<string> result = list.Where(s => Regex.IsMatch(s, "^are you*")).ToList();

//get results

are you there.

are you OK?

Best regards,

Kristin

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