Find and replace a part of a string c#

Question

I have an SQL query in a string and I want to replace a part of the string with a new value.

The part in the string I'm looking for is a: until it hits either a, or a ). The part it finds needs to be replaced by a question mark.

I've been working on this for a while but I can't seem to find a solution how to fix this.

Can anyone help me further?

Example String I want to get a part of:

"INSERT INTO ORDERS  ( ORDER_ID, CUSTNO, COMPANY_NAME, ITEM, AMOUNT1, AMOUNT2) 
VALUES ( :WS_ORDER_ID, :WS_ORDER_CUSTNO, :WS_ORDER_COMPANY_NAME, :WS_ITEM, :WS_AMOUNT1, :WS_AMOUNT2)"

So what I want the string to look like is:

"INSERT INTO ORDERS  ( ORDER_ID, CUSTNO, COMPANY_NAME, ITEM, AMOUNT1, AMOUNT2) 
VALUES ( ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?)"

What i was trying to create:

public String Replace(String value, String firstValue, String lastValue, String replacementValue) {
      int firstLocation = value.IndexOf(firstValue);
      var lastLocation = value.IndexOf(lastValue);

      if (value.Contains(firstValue)) {
        String modifiedValue;
        modifiedValue = value.IndexOf(Convert.ToChar(firstLocation), lastLocation.ToString());
        String newValue = value.Replace(modifiedValue, replacementValue);
      }

      return newValue;
    }

Something like this but I can't figure it out.

And then I want to have a foreach loop that takes this method and replaces every:WORD, with a?.

Best regards

Answer 1

A simple method like this should do the trick if ':' is guaranteed to be unique as a token:

public string Replace(string text)
{
    string[] items = text.Split(':');
    StringBuilder stringBuilder = new StringBuilder();
    stringBuilder.Append(items[0]);
    for(int i=1;i<items.Length;i++)
    {
        string item = items[i].TrimEnd();
        stringBuilder.Append("?" + item[item.Length - 1]);
    }
    return stringBuilder.ToString();
}