C# - Grouping Constructs



Grouping constructs delineate sub-expressions of a regular expression and capture substrings of an input string. The following table lists the grouping constructs −

Grouping construct Description Pattern Matches
( subexpression ) Captures the matched subexpression and assigns it a zero-based ordinal number. (\w)\1 "ee" in "deep"
(?< name >subexpression) Captures the matched subexpression into a named group. (?< double>\w)\k< double> "ee" in "deep"
(?< name1 -name2 >subexpression) Defines a balancing group definition. (((?'Open'\()[^\(\)]*)+((?'Close-Open'\))[^\(\)]*)+)*(?(Open)(?!))$ "((1-3)*(3-1))" in "3+2^((1-3)*(3-1))"
(?: subexpression) Defines a noncapturing group. Write(?:Line)? "WriteLine" in "Console.WriteLine()"
(?imnsx-imnsx:subexpression) Applies or disables the specified options within subexpression. A\d{2}(?i:\w+)\b "A12xl", "A12XL" in "A12xl A12XL a12xl"
(?= subexpression) Zero-width positive lookahead assertion. \w+(?=\.) "is", "ran", and "out" in "He is. The dog ran. The sun is out."
(?! subexpression) Zero-width negative lookahead assertion. \b(?!un)\w+\b "sure", "used" in "unsure sure unity used"
(?< =subexpression) Zero-width positive lookbehind assertion. (?< =19)\d{2}\b "99", "50", "05" in "1851 1999 1950 1905 2003"
(?< ! subexpression) Zero-width negative lookbehind assertion. (?< !19)\d{2}\b "51", "03" in "1851 1999 1950 1905 2003"
(?> subexpression) Nonbacktracking (or "greedy") subexpression. [13579](?>A+B+) "1ABB", "3ABB", and "5AB" in "1ABB 3ABBC 5AB 5AC"
csharp_regular_expressions.htm
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