In want to format an article with HTML tags programmatically. What is the best way to find a pattern in the article and replace it with itself with the tags appended on each side? More specifically, how can I pass the match into thematch in the following example:
string formattedArticle
= Regex.Replace(article, "^\d.+", "<em>" + thematch + "</em>");
The documentation explains:
The
$&substitution includes the entire match in the replacement string.
In fact, in their example they present a use case very similar to yours:
Often, it is used to add a substring to the beginning or end of the matched string.
So in your case you can write:
Regex.Replace(article, "^\d.+", "<em>$&</em>");
replace it with itself with the tags appended on each side
Simply capture it inside the group enclosing inside parenthesis (...) and then access it using $1 and replace with <TAG>$1</TAG>
sample code:
var pattern = @"^(\d.+)";
var replaced = Regex.Replace(text, pattern, "<em>$1</em>");
Read more about Replace only some groups with Regex
