C# regular expression to match ANY character?

Question

In C#, I write the following string to a string variable, carriage return and all:

asdfasdfasdf asdfas<test>asdfasdf asdfasdf<test>asdfasdf

In Notepad2, I use this regular expression:

<test>.*<test>

It selects this text as expected:

<test>asdfasdf asdfasdf<test>

However, when I do this in C#:

System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.Replace(s, "<test>.*<test>", string.Empty);

It doesn't remove the string. However, when I run this code on a string without any carriage returns, it does work.

So what I am looking for is a regex that will match ANY character, regardless whether or not it is a control code or a regular character.

qJake · Accepted Answer · 2011-04-27 19:13:36Z

You forgot to specify that the Regex operation (specifically, the . operator) should match all characters (not all characters except \n):

System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.Replace(s, "<test>.*<test>", string.Empty, RegexOptions.Singleline);

All you needed to add was RegexOptions.Singleline.

Har! You're right! I'll mark your response as the answer in 10 minutes when stackoverflow allows it =P.

Blindy · Accepted Answer · 2011-04-27 19:14:54Z

13

Use single-line mode:

Regex.Replace(s, "<test>.*<test>", "", RegexOptions.Singleline);

answered Apr 27, 2011 at 19:14

68k10 gold badges96 silver badges141 bronze badges

Comments

vapcguy · Accepted Answer · 2018-09-20 18:48:20Z

You could remove the carriage returns in the string, then do your match:

s = s.Replace(Environment.NewLine, "");

Then it should work as expected:

System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.Replace(s, "<test>.*<test>", string.Empty);