replace whole word

[Aaron]

If i use the replace function in c#

string a = "this";
a.replace("is", "something");

my output would be like thsomething
how can i replace when only the whole word matches.

string a = "is";
a.replace("is", "something");

output: something

Thanks
Aaron

 

[Niki Estner]

Use:

string a = "is";
a = Regex.Replace(a, @"\bis\b", "something");

Niki

 

[Aaron]

what does \b mean? backspace?

what if the string is just one work "is" not " is "??

 

[Niki Estner]

what does \b mean? backspace?

"\b" matches for a word boundary. See: http://tinyurl.com/5uvwz

what if the string is just one work "is" not " is "??

Not sure what you mean... "\b is \b" (including the spaces) would match:
"this is fine", but not "a, is b", because ", " is no word boundary.

Niki

 

[Aaron]

what is the string only has one word
a = "is";

there's no /b in that string

 

[James Curran]

what is the string only has one word
a = "is";

there's no /b in that string

Sure there is. End of string is a word boundary. Why would you think
it isn't? Remember in a regular expression, there is not necessarily a
one-to-one correlation between letter in the pattern and letters in the
matched string.

 

[Niki Estner]

As explaind in the link I've sent you, "\b" is a zero-width assertion: It
doesn't match a character, it matches a position in a string where left of
the position is a word character (a-z,A-Z,0-9,_), while right of it isn't
(or vice versa). In the string "is", at position 0 there'a word character
('i') to the right, but no word character to the left, thus \b matches. Same
applies for the end of the string.

Niki