VB.Net- using an array in a regular expression string

Hi montarch;

This code snippet should do what you need.

Fernando

Imports System.Text.RegularExpressions
Imports System.Text
 
 
    Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
 
        Dim testData As String = "The fieldwork was performed between August 1 and 5, 2003" & vbCrLf & _
            "The fieldwork was performed on August 12 and 15, 2003" & vbCrLf & _
            "The fieldwork was conducted by John Doe and Jim Public on August 12th  and 13th, 2003" & vbCrLf & _
            "The fieldwork was performed during July and August, 2003" & vbCrLf & _
            "The fieldwork was conducted by John Doe and Jim Public between March 16-29, 2004" & vbCrLf & _
            "The fieldwork was conducted in September and October 2003" & vbCrLf & _
            "The fieldwork was performed on July 24, 2003" & vbCrLf & _
            "The fieldwork was conducted on July 28 through August 15, 2003" & vbCrLf & _
            "The fieldwork was performed on July 24 and 25," & vbCrLf & _
            "The fieldwork was performed by John Doe on 07 April 2003" & vbCrLf & _
            "The fieldwork was supervised by John Doe and assisted by Jim Public from April 14 through 29, 2003"
        Dim pattern As String = "(?im)(?=.*?fieldwork\s)(?=.*?" & _
            "(?<Month>January|February|March|April|May|June|July|August|September|October|November|December))" & _
            "(?:.*?(?<Dates>\d{1,2}\s+\k<Month>.*?)|.*?(?<Dates>\k<Month>.*?))(?:\r\n|$)"
        Dim sb As StringBuilder = New StringBuilder
        Dim mc As MatchCollection = Regex.Matches(testData, pattern)
 
        For Each m As Match In mc
            sb.Append(m.Groups("Dates").Value & vbCrLf)
        Next
 
        MessageBox.Show(sb.ToString())
 
    End Sub

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Sorry for not getting back sooner- I've been working on this project for days, and into the wee hours.
Excellent code sample you provided for me- I've been trying to integrate it into a console app.
The goal is to get the data from files in a directory, instead of the strings that you hard coded under 'testdata as string'. From there, to write the data to a file.
It works well by itself, however when I try to add in the other code (regex patterns and such- let me know if you'd like a copy of theat code and the problematic code-) I'm having a couple of problems.
The original code (that I'm trying to add your sample to) uses a for..each..next loop to get to the file location, and read the files in one at a time. I'm having a problem getting results by placing your code within that for.each.next..

Here's your code, that I pushed into a console app.. This works file, by the way.

Module Module1
    Sub Main()
        Dim testData As String = "The fieldwork was performed between August 1 and 5, 2003" & vbCrLf & _
            "The fieldwork was performed on August 12 and 15, 2003" & vbCrLf & _
            "The fieldwork was conducted by John Doe and Jim Public on August 12th  and 13th, 2003" & vbCrLf & _
            "The fieldwork was performed during July and August, 2003" & vbCrLf & _
            "The fieldwork was conducted by John Doe and Jim Public between March 16-29, 2004" & vbCrLf & _
            "The fieldwork was conducted in September and October 2003" & vbCrLf & _
            "The fieldwork was performed on July 24, 2003" & vbCrLf & _
            "The fieldwork was conducted on July 28 through August 15, 2003" & vbCrLf & _
            "The fieldwork was performed on July 24 and 25," & vbCrLf & _
            "The fieldwork was performed by John Doe on 07 April 2003" & vbCrLf & _
            "The fieldwork was supervised by John Doe and assisted by Jim Public from April 14 through 29, 2003"
        Dim pattern As String = "(?im)(?=.*?fieldwork\s)(?=.*?" & _
            "(?January|February|March|April|May|June|July|August|September|October|November|December))" & _
            "(?:.*?(?\d{1,2}\s+\k.*?)|.*?(?\k.*?))(?:\r\n|$)"
        Dim sb As StringBuilder = New StringBuilder
        Dim mc As MatchCollection = Regex.Matches(testData, pattern)
        Dim sw As StreamWriter = New StreamWriter("c:\1\out\projtest.txt", True)
        Dim fwdatestr As String
        For Each m As Match In mc
            sb.Append(m.Groups("Dates").Value & vbCrLf)
        Next
        fwdatestr = sb.ToString
        sw.WriteLine(fwdatestr)
        sw.Close()
    End Sub
End Module
......................................
And here's the code that I am trying to incorporate your sample into. The problem I'm having is with the matchcollection for each, sb.Append(m.Groups("Dates").Value & vbCrLf)-

I can't get my head wrapped around how to get this set ptoperly. Anyway, here's the other code that is also working..
Module Module1
    Sub Main()
        Dim projfile As String = "C:\1\out\projects.csv"
        Try
            If File.Exists(projfile) Then
                File.Delete(projfile)
                Console.WriteLine("'projects.csv' file found, deleted file.")
            Else
                Console.WriteLine("'projects.csv' file NOT found, NO deleted file.")
            End If
            For Each datafile As String In Directory.GetFiles("c:\1\")
                Dim sr As StreamReader = New StreamReader(datafile)
                Dim filetext As String = sr.ReadToEnd()
                sr.Close()
                Console.WriteLine("Processing: " & datafile)
                Dim repermitnumber As Regex = New Regex("U-\d{2}-MQ-\d{1,4}[a-z]*")
                Dim reprojectcounty As Regex = New Regex("\w* ?\w+ ?county, *Utah", RegexOptions.IgnoreCase)
                Dim rereportnumber As Regex = New Regex("(?<=Report No\. ?)\d\d-\d\d\d?")
                Dim mpermitnumber As Match = repermitnumber.Match(filetext)
                Dim mprojectcounty As Match = reprojectcounty.Match(filetext)
                Dim mreportnumber As Match = rereportnumber.Match(filetext)
                Dim sw As StreamWriter = New StreamWriter(projfile, True)
                Dim dataline As String = mpermitnumber.Groups(0).Value & "|" & mprojectcounty.Groups(0).Value & "|" & mreportnumber.Groups(0).Value
                Console.WriteLine("   Writing: " & dataline)
                sw.WriteLine(dataline)
                sw.Close()
            Next
        Catch E As Exception
            Console.WriteLine("An error was encountered:")
            Console.WriteLine(E.Message)
        End Try
    End Sub
End Module


Thanks again for your help.

Hi montarch;

Below is your code which I have moved some lines around and have added my solution to it. I have also placed some comments in the code.

Fernando

Sub Main()
	Dim projfile As String = "C:\1\out\projects.csv"
	Try
		If File.Exists(projfile) Then
			File.Delete(projfile)
			Console.WriteLine("'projects.csv' file found, deleted file.")
		Else
			Console.WriteLine("'projects.csv' file NOT found, NO deleted file.")
		End If
 
		' These Regex objects only need to be created one. Doing it this was improves performance
		Dim repermitnumber As Regex = New Regex("U-\d{2}-MQ-\d{1,4}[a-z]*")
		Dim reprojectcounty As Regex = New Regex("\w* ?\w+ ?county, *Utah", RegexOptions.IgnoreCase)
		Dim rereportnumber As Regex = New Regex("(?<=Report No\. ?)\d\d-\d\d\d?")
		Dim pattern As String = "(?im)(?=.*?fieldwork\s)(?=.*?" & _
			"(?<Month>January|February|March|April|May|June|July|August|September|October|November|December))" & _
			"(?:.*?(?<Dates>\d{1,2}\s+\k<Month>.*?)|.*?(?<Dates>\k<Month>.*?))(?:\r\n|$)"
		Dim redatechanged As Regex = New Regex(pattern)
 
		' Initialize the StringBuilder
		Dim sb As StringBuilder = New StringBuilder
 
		For Each datafile As String In Directory.GetFiles("c:\1\")
			' Set the lenth of the string in StringBuilder to 0 this
			' makes the string within the StringBuilder = String.Empty
			sb.Length = 0
			Dim sr As StreamReader = New StreamReader(datafile)
			Dim filetext As String = sr.ReadToEnd()
			sr.Close()
			Console.WriteLine("Processing: " & datafile)
			Dim mpermitnumber As Match = repermitnumber.Match(filetext)
			Dim mprojectcounty As Match = reprojectcounty.Match(filetext)
			Dim mreportnumber As Match = rereportnumber.Match(filetext)
			Dim sw As StreamWriter = New StreamWriter(projfile, True)
			' Adding this to the StringBuilder object
			sb.Append(mpermitnumber.Groups(0).Value & "|" & _
				mprojectcounty.Groups(0).Value & "|" & mreportnumber.Groups(0).Value & vbCrLf)
			
			Dim mc As MatchCollection = redatechanged.Matches(filetext)
			For Each m As Match In mc
				sb.Append(m.Groups("Dates").Value & vbCrLf)
			Next
			
			Console.WriteLine(" Writing: " & sb.ToString())
			sw.WriteLine(sb.ToString())
			sw.Close()
		Next
	Catch E As Exception
		Console.WriteLine("An error was encountered:")
		Console.WriteLine(E.Message)
	End Try
End Sub

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