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How To Remove Unwanted Text

Hi,

Hope someone here can help me.

We are busy writing an application to import delimited files from specific locations into a database table. Data in the one column has some extra characters on the end that need to be trimmed off. The string looks like so:

PAPPRD_STOCKI_LOW_151308_1.1.072

The first part of the string (PAPPRD_STOCKI_LOW) needs to stay. We need a way to trim off everything from the third underscore(_) to the end. There are several rows with fields like this, and the "STOCKI" and the "LOW" parts are different in some of them.

Is there a way to do this with a regex? Or am I barking up the wrong tree?

TiaanB

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Text.RegularExpressions;

namespace ConsoleApplication1
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            String testWord = "PAPPRD_STOCKI_LOW_151308_1.1.072";
            String pattern = @"(?<Word>[a-z_]*(?=_\d))";
            Regex rx = new Regex(pattern, RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);
            String word = String.Empty;
            Match m = rx.Match(testWord);
            if (m.Success)
            {
                word = m.Groups["Word"].Value;
            }
        }
    }
}

John Grove - TFD Group, Senior Software Engineer, EI Division, http://www.tfdg.com

Marked As Answer byTiaanB Thursday, September 17, 2009 6:48 AM

JohnGrove

John,

Though your pattern solve the string piece here, I think it's not an exact solution.

TiaanB wants "trim off everything from the third underscore(_) to the end"

But your pattern just reserve all words before _ and a digit..

If the first digit appear at other position, it will fail.

Even in your way, I think just replace all _\d.+?$ or (_\d+)+ to empty is more simple and faster.

But I think using _\d as splitter is not reliable.

The key ishe third underscore(_)

If you don't improve your pattern, I think the answer of this thread would be gained by Xalnix, :)

www.wonderstudio.cn

Marked As Answer byTiaanB Thursday, September 17, 2009 6:48 AM

Eping Wang

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Text.RegularExpressions;

namespace ConsoleApplication1
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            String testWord = "PAPPRD_STOCKI_LOW_151308_1.1.072";
            String pattern = @"(?<Word>[a-z_]*(?=_\d))";
            Regex rx = new Regex(pattern, RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);
            String word = String.Empty;
            Match m = rx.Match(testWord);
            if (m.Success)
            {
                word = m.Groups["Word"].Value;
            }
        }
    }
}

John Grove - TFD Group, Senior Software Engineer, EI Division, http://www.tfdg.com

Marked As Answer byTiaanB Thursday, September 17, 2009 6:48 AM

JohnGrove

Thanks John. I've been scratching my head over this one for days now. Being new to Regexes didn't help much either.

Much appreciated.

Unmarked As Answer byTiaanB Thursday, September 17, 2009 6:48 AM
Marked As Answer byTiaanB Thursday, September 17, 2009 6:48 AM

TiaanB

If this helped you can we close this thread?

John Grove - TFD Group, Senior Software Engineer, EI Division, http://www.tfdg.com

JohnGrove

John,

Though your pattern solve the string piece here, I think it's not an exact solution.

TiaanB wants "trim off everything from the third underscore(_) to the end"

But your pattern just reserve all words before _ and a digit..

If the first digit appear at other position, it will fail.

Even in your way, I think just replace all _\d.+?$ or (_\d+)+ to empty is more simple and faster.

But I think using _\d as splitter is not reliable.

The key ishe third underscore(_)

If you don't improve your pattern, I think the answer of this thread would be gained by Xalnix, :)

www.wonderstudio.cn

Marked As Answer byTiaanB Thursday, September 17, 2009 6:48 AM

Eping Wang

Thank you Eping. With your & John's help I can now put this to bed.

TiaanB

Thanks Eping for the critique on it. It is always nice to get other expert opinions like yours.

John Grove - TFD Group, Senior Software Engineer, EI Division, http://www.tfdg.com

JohnGrove

You can use google to search for other answers

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