Regex.GroupNameFromNumber Method
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Gets the group name that corresponds to the specified group number.
Namespace: System.Text.RegularExpressions
Assembly: System (in System.dll)
Syntax
'Declaration
Public Function GroupNameFromNumber ( _
i As Integer _
) As String
public string GroupNameFromNumber(
int i
)
Parameters
- i
Type: System.Int32
The group number to convert to the corresponding group name.
Return Value
Type: System.String
A string that contains the group name associated with the specified group number. If there is no group name that corresponds to i, the method returns String.Empty.
Remarks
A regular expression pattern may contain either named or numbered capturing groups, which delineate subexpressions within a pattern match. Numbered groups are delimited by the syntax (subexpression) and are assigned numbers based on their order in the regular expression. Named groups are delimited by the syntax (?<name>subexpression) or (?'name'subexpression), where name is the name by which the subexpression will be identified. The GroupNameFromNumber method identifies both named groups and numbered groups by their ordinal positions in the regular expression. Ordinal position zero always represents the entire regular expression. All numbered groups are then counted before named groups, regardless of their actual position in the regular expression pattern.
If i is the number of a named group, the method returns the name of the group. If i is the number of an unnamed group, the method returns the string representation of the number. For example, if i is 1, the method returns "1". If i is not the number of a capturing group, the method returns String.Empty.
If a pattern match is successful, the value returned by this method can then be used to retrieve the Group object that represents the captured group from the GroupCollection.Item property. The GroupCollection object is returned by the Match.Groups property.
Examples
The following example defines a regular expression pattern that matches an address line containing a U.S. city name, state name, and zip code. The example uses the GroupNameFromNumber method to retrieve the names of capturing groups. It then uses these names to retrieve the corresponding captured groups for successful matches.
The regular expression pattern is defined by the following expression:
(?<city>[A-Za-z\s]+), (?<state>[A-Za-z]{2}) (?<zip>\d{5}(-\d{4})?)
The following table shows how the regular expression pattern is interpreted.
Pattern |
Description |
|---|---|
(?<city>[A-Za-z\s]+) |
Match one or more alphabetic or white-space character. Assign this captured group the name city. |
, |
Match a comma (,) followed by a white-space character. |
(?<state>[A-Za-z]{2}) |
Match two alphabetic characters. Assign this captured group the name state. This group should be followed by a white-space character. |
(?<zip>\d{5}(-\d{4})?) |
Match five numeric digits followed by either zero or one occurrence of a hyphen followed by four digits. Assign this captured group the name zip. |
Version Information
Silverlight
Supported in: 5, 4, 3
Silverlight for Windows Phone
Supported in: Windows Phone OS 7.1, Windows Phone OS 7.0
XNA Framework
Supported in: Xbox 360, Windows Phone OS 7.0
Platforms
For a list of the operating systems and browsers that are supported by Silverlight, see Supported Operating Systems and Browsers.