Find token values within a string c#

Question

I have the following situation. I have a pattern like this:

Hi, my name is ${name}, I am ${age} years old. I live in ${address}

I want to get the value of those tokens within any sentence:

Hi, my name is Peter, I am 22 years old. I live in San Francisco, California

So, I need the key=value in a Dictionary<string, string> :

${name} = "Peter",
${age} = "22",
${address} = "San Francisco, California"

Answer 1

Have you tried using Regex? This is a classic Regular Expression. One that fits your sentence :

Hi, my name is (?<name>.*), I am (?<age>.*) years old\. I live in (?<address>.*)

Usage example :

Match match = Regex.Match(@"Hi, my name is Peter, I am 22 years old. I live in San Fransisco, California", @"Hi, my name is (?<name>.*), I am (?<age>.*) years old\. I live in (?<address>.*)");

Now, to access the specific groups :

match.Groups["name"], match.Groups["age"], match.Groups["address"]

These will give you your values. Of course, you should first check match.IsSuccess to see if the Regex was matched.

Answer 2

Convert your patter to a regex with named capturing groups:

    string pattern = "Hi, my name is ${name}, I am ${age} years old. I live in ${address}";
    string input = "Hi, my name is Peter, I am 22 years old. I live in San Francisco, California";
    string resultRegex = Regex.Replace(Regex.Escape(pattern), @"\\\$\\\{(.+?)}", "(?<$1>.+)");
    Regex regex = new Regex(resultRegex);
    GroupCollection groups = regex.Match(input).Groups;

    Dictionary<string, string> dic = regex.GetGroupNames()
                                          .Skip(1)
                                          .ToDictionary(k => "${"+k+"}",
                                                        k => groups[k].Value);
    foreach (string groupName in dic.Keys)
    {
        Console.WriteLine(groupName + " = " + dic[groupName]);
    }

Answer 3

string Template = "Hi, my name is ${name}, I am ${age} years old. I live in ${address}";
            Dictionary<string, string> KeyValuePair=new Dictionary<string,string>();
            KeyValuePair.Add("${name}", "Peter");
            KeyValuePair.Add("${age}", "22");
            KeyValuePair.Add("${address}", "San Francisco, California");
            foreach (var key in KeyValuePair.Keys)
            {
                Template = Template.Replace(key, KeyValuePair[key]);
            }

Answer 4

One easy way of doing it by using String.Format method. For Example:

string pattern="Hi, my name is {0}, I am {1} years old. I live in {2}";
string result= String.Format(patter,name,age,address);//here name , age, address are value to be placed in the pattern.

For more reference on String.Formate , see:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.string.format.aspx