Regular Expressions Cookbook

3.15. Replace Matches Reusing Parts of the Match

Problem

You want to run a search-and-replace that reinserts parts of the regex match back into the replacement. The parts you want to reinsert have been isolated in your regular expression using capturing groups, as described in Recipe 2.9.

For example, you want to match pairs of words delimited by an equals sign, and swap those words in the replacement.

Solution

C#

You can use the static call when you process only a small number of strings with the same regular expression:

string resultString = Regex.Replace(subjectString, @"(\w+)=(\w+)",
                                                   "$2=$1");

Construct a Regex object if you want to use the same regular expression with a large number of strings:

Regex regexObj = new Regex(@"(\w+)=(\w+)");
string resultString = regexObj.Replace(subjectString, "$2=$1");

VB.NET

You can use the static call when you process only a small number of strings with the same regular expression:

Dim ResultString = Regex.Replace(SubjectString, "(\w+)=(\w+)", "$2=$1")

Construct a Regex object if you want to use the same regular expression with a large number of strings:

Dim RegexObj As New Regex("(\w+)=(\w+)")
Dim ResultString = RegexObj.Replace(SubjectString, "$2=$1")

Java

You can call String.replaceAll() when you process only one string with the same regular expression:

String resultString = subjectString.replaceAll("(\\w+)=(\\w+)", "$2=$1");

Construct a Matcher object if you want to use the same regular expression with a large number of strings:

Pattern regex = Pattern.compile("(\\w+)=(\\w+)"); ...