visual studio 2010 - Match two whole words in Regex -
i struggling find solution matching 2 successive whole words using regular expression. have text box user can type in search criteria, enclosed quotations exact matches. quotes , space (if any) replaced regex expressions. here example:
user enters: "apple orange"
converted to:
\bapple\w+(?:\w+\w+){1,6}?orange\b
then, regex match based on converted criteria. instructions www.regular-expressions.info/near.html
maybe going entirely wrong way? using visual studio. appreciated.
if want exact match when user uses quotes, should remove quotes , straight string comparison (equality, not contains)
update:
based on comments below, same thing single word match:
single word:
\bapple\b
double word
\bapple orange\b
the idea user enters in search term , match that, wouldn't doing pattern matching term itself, boundaries of (the \b
wrapped around it). there's no reason touch search term (all stuff in-between apple , orange trying do) because space inbetween 2 part of search...unless wanting make bit flexible..for example, if user enter in "apple[lots of space here]orange"
count single space, do
\bapple\s+orange\b
..but you're kind of deviating whole "exact match" theme...
sidenote: said in comment "crabapple orangecrush" did not want "apple orange" match. why use \b
word boundaries. imo if me, allow match. or @ least, offer kind of option search in manner.