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Can't understand apperantly simple code snippet in C# using RegexClass r = new Regex(" |, |,");

I have problems with some code that should be simple.
namespace CSharp
{
using System;
using System.Text;
using System.Text.RegularExpressions;
public class Tester
{
static void Main()
{
string s1 = "One,Two,Three Liberty Associates, Inc.";
Regex theRegex = new Regex(" |, |,");
StringBuilder sBuilder = new StringBuilder();
int id = 1;
foreach (string subString in theRegex.Split(s1))
{
sBuilder.AppendFormat("{0}: {1}\n", id++, subString);
}
Console.WriteLine("{0}", sBuilder);
}
}//tester class
}//namespace
Which outputs:
1: One
2: Two
3: Three
4: Liberty
5: Associates
6: Inc.
If I modify the constructor call to new Regex(" |, ");
I get:
1: One,Two,Three
2: Liberty
3: Associates
4: Inc.
I know | is or and I am parsing with , and space, but I don't understand how it works and why I need it given twice.

You can think about "|" as OR. So, when breakdown this regex, you find all matches with this pattern: " " OR ", " OR ",".

The second regex has space OR comma-plus-space. The string "One,Two,Three" does not have any spaces so does not match any part of that regex. To better see what is happening try Regex("( |, |,)") and Regex("( |, )"). Adding the capture brackets into the regexs adds the text they match into the results. See here which states:
If capturing parentheses are used in a Regex.Split expression, any captured text is included in the resulting string array. For example, if you split the string "plum-pear" on a hyphen placed within capturing parentheses, the returned array includes a string element that contains the hyphen.
Additionally, I suggest changing the
sBuilder.AppendFormat("{0}: {1}\n", id++, subString);
to be
sBuilder.AppendFormat("{0}: '{1}'\n", id++, subString);
Enclosing the {1} in quotes makes the string easier to see, especially if it has leading or trailing spaces.

Your first regex " |, |," split the text by three options:
one space (' ')
one comma (',')
one comma and one space (', ')
The second regex " |, " have only two options:
one space (' ')
one comma and one space (', ')
The split by comma not exists so it don't split the "One,Two,Three".
I suggest change ' ' with \s and you can take the two options ',' and ', ' with this code: ',\s?' - one comma and then one or zero spaces.
So the full regex is: "\s|,\s?"
you can check it here: regex

ok so how does the following work?
Regex theReg = new Regex(#"(?<time>(\d|\:)+)\s" + #"(?<ip>(\d|\.)+)\s" +
#"(?<site>\S+)");
#"(?(\d|:)+)\s" - should mean a group called time that has any combination of numbers and : colons right?
#"(?(\d|.)+)\s" - a group called IP that has numbers or dots in any amount
#"(?\S+)") - a group of character
And the way this Regex is designed to work, it only works in pairs of 3 or? made a few tests with it, this is what I understand.

Separate title string with no spaces into words

I want to find and separate words in a title that has no spaces.
Before:
ThisIsAnExampleTitleHELLO-WORLD2019T.E.S.T.(Test)"Test"'Test'[Test]
After:
This Is An Example Title HELLO-WORLD 2019 T.E.S.T. (Test) [Test] "Test" 'Test'
I'm looking for a regular expression rule that can do the following.
I thought I'd identify each word if it starts with an uppercase letter.
But also preserve all uppercase words as not to space them into A L L U P P E R C A S E.
Additional rules:
Space a letter if it touches a number: Hello2019World Hello 2019 World
Ignore spacing initials that contain periods, hyphens, or underscores T.E.S.T.
Ignore spacing if between brackets, parentheses, or quotes [Test] (Test) "Test" 'Test'
Preserve hyphens Hello-World
C#
https://rextester.com/GAZJS38767
// Title without spaces
string title = "ThisIsAnExampleTitleHELLO-WORLD2019T.E.S.T.(Test)[Test]\"Test\"'Test'";
// Detect where to space words
string[] split = Regex.Split(title, "(?<!^)(?=(?<![.\\-'\"([{])[A-Z][\\d+]?)");
// Trim each word of extra spaces before joining
split = (from e in split
select e.Trim()).ToArray();
// Join into new title
string newtitle = string.Join(" ", split);
// Display
Console.WriteLine(newtitle);
Regular expression
I'm having trouble with spacing before the numbers, brackets, parentheses, and quotes.
https://regex101.com/r/9IIYGX/1
(?<!^)(?=(?<![.\-'"([{])(?<![A-Z])[A-Z][\d+?]?)
(?<!^) // Negative look behind
(?= // Positive look ahead
(?<![.\-'"([{]) // Ignore if starts with punctuation
(?<![A-Z]) // Ignore if starts with double Uppercase letter
[A-Z] // Space after each Uppercase letter
[\d+]? // Space after number
)
Solution
Thanks for all your combined effort in answers. Here's a Regex example. I'm applying this to file names and have exclude special characters \/:*?"<>|.
https://rextester.com/FYEVE73725
https://regex101.com/r/xi8L4z/1

Here is a regex which seems to work well, at least for your sample input:
(?<=[a-z])(?=[A-Z])|(?<=[0-9])(?=[A-Za-z])|(?<=[A-Za-z])(?=[0-9])|(?<=\W)(?=\W)
This patten says to make a split on a boundary of one of the following conditions:
what precedes is a lowercase, and what precedes is an uppercase (or
vice-versa)
what precedes is a digit and what follows is a letter (or
vice-versa)
what precedes and what follows is a non word character
(e.g. quote, parenthesis, etc.)
string title = "ThisIsAnExampleTitleHELLO-WORLD2019T.E.S.T.(Test)[Test]\"Test\"'Test'";
string[] split = Regex.Split(title, "(?<=[a-z])(?=[A-Z])|(?<=[0-9])(?=[A-Za-z])|(?<=[A-Za-z])(?=[0-9])|(?<=\\W)(?=\\W)");
split = (from e in split select e.Trim()).ToArray();
string newtitle = string.Join(" ", split);
This Is An Example Title HELLO-WORLD 2019 T.E.S.T. (Test) [Test] "Test" 'Test'
Note: You might also want to add this assertion to the regex alternation:
(?<=\W)(?=\w)|(?<=\w)(?=\W)
We got away with this here, because this boundary condition never happened. But you might need it with other inputs.

First few parts are similar to #revo answer: (?<!^|[A-Z\p{P}])[A-Z]|(?<=\p{P})\p{P}, additionally I add the following regex to space between number and letter: (?<=[a-z])(?=\d)|(?<=\d)(?=[a-z])|(?<=[A-Z])(?=\d)|(?<=\d)(?=[A-Z]) and to detect OTPIsADevice then replace with lookahead and lookbehind to find uppercase with a lowercase: (((?<!^)[A-Z](?=[a-z]))|((?<=[a-z])[A-Z]))
Note that | is or operator which allowed all the regex to be executed.
Regex: (?<!^|[A-Z\p{P}])[A-Z]|(?<=\p{P})\p{P}|(?<=[a-z])(?=\d)|(?<=\d)(?=[a-z])|(?<=[A-Z])(?=\d)|(?<=\d)(?=[A-Z])|(((?<!^)[A-Z](?=[a-z]))|((?<=[a-z])[A-Z]))
Demo
Update
Improvised a bit:
From: (?<!^|[A-Z\p{P}])[A-Z]|(?<=\p{P})\p{P}|(?<=[a-z])(?=\d)|(?<=\d)(?=[a-z])|(?<=[A-Z])(?=\d)|(?<=\d)(?=[A-Z])
into: (?<!^|[A-Z\p{P}])[A-Z]|(?<=\p{P})\p{P}|(?<=\p{L})\d which do the same thing.
(((?<!^)(?<!\p{P})[A-Z](?=[a-z]))|((?<=[a-z])[A-Z]))|(?<!^)(?=[[({&])|(?<=[)\]}!&}]) improvised from OP comment which is adding exception to some punctuation: (((?<!^)(?<!['([{])[A-Z](?=[a-z]))|((?<=[a-z])[A-Z]))|(?<!^)(?=[[({&])|(?<=[)\\]}!&}])
Final regex:
(?<!^|[A-Z\p{P}])[A-Z]|(?<=\p{P})\p{P}|(?<=\p{L})\d|(((?<!^)(?<!\p{P})[A-Z](?=[a-z]))|((?<=[a-z])[A-Z]))|(?<!^)(?=[[({&])|(?<=[)\]}!&}])
Demo

Aiming for simplicity rather than huge regex, I would recommend this code with small simple patterns (comments with explanation are in code):
string str = "ThisIsAnExampleTitleHELLO-WORLD2019T.E.S.T.(Test)\"Test\"'Test'[Test]";
// insert space when there is small letter followed by upercase letter
str = Regex.Replace(str, "(?<=[a-z])(?=[A-Z])", " ");
// insert space whenever there's digit followed by a ltter
str = Regex.Replace(str, #"(?<=\d)(?=[A-Za-z])", " ");
// insert space when there's letter followed by digit
str = Regex.Replace(str, #"(?<=[A-Za-z])(?=\d)", " ");
// insert space when there's one of characters ("'[ followed by letter or digit
str = Regex.Replace(str, #"(?=[(\[""'][a-zA-Z0-9])", " ");
// insert space when what preceeds is on of characters ])"'
str = Regex.Replace(str, #"(?<=[)\]""'])", " ");

You could reduce the requirements to shorten the steps of a regular expression using a different interpretation of them. For example, the first requirement would be the same as to say, preserve capital letters if they are not preceded by punctuation marks or capital letters.
The following regex works almost for all of the mentioned requirements and may be extended to include or exclude other situations:
(?<!^|[A-Z\p{P}])[A-Z]|(?<=\p{P})\p{P}
You have to use Replace() method and use $0 as substitution string.
See live demo here
.NET (See it in action):
string input = #"ThisIsAnExample.TitleHELLO-WORLD2019T.E.S.T.(Test)""Test""'Test'[Test]";
Regex regex = new Regex(#"(?<!^|[A-Z\p{P}])[A-Z]|(?<=\p{P})\p{P}", RegexOptions.Multiline);
Console.WriteLine(regex.Replace(input, #" $0"));

using Regex to iterate over a string and search for 3 consecutive hyphens and replace it with [space][hyphen][space]

I currently have a string which looks like this when it is returned :
//This is the url string
// the-great-debate---toilet-paper-over-or-under-the-roll
string name = string.Format("{0}",url);
name = Regex.Replace(name, "-", " ");
And when I perform the following Regex operation it becomes like this :
the great debate toilet paper over or under the roll
However, like I mentioned in the question, I want to be able to apply regex to the url string so that I have the following output:-
the great debate - toilet paper over or under the roll
I would really appreciate any assistance.
[EDIT] However, not all the strings look like this, some of them just have a single hyphen so the above method work
world-water-day-2016
and it changes to
world water day 2016
but for this one:
the-great-debate---toilet-paper-over-or-under-the-roll
I need a way to check if the string has 3 hyphens than replace those 3 hyphens with [space][hyphen][space]. And than replace all the remaining single hyphens between the words with space.

First of all, there is always a very naive solution to this kind of problem: you replace your specific matches in context with some chars that are not usually used in the current environment and after replacing generic substrings you may replace the temporary substrings with the necessary exception.
var name = url.Replace("---", "[ \uFFFD ]").Replace("-", " ").Replace("[ \uFFFD ]", " - ");
You may also use a regex based replacement that matches either a 3-hyphen substring capturing it, or just match a single hyphen, and then check if Group 1 matched inside a match evaluator (the third parameter to Regex.Replace can be a Match evaluator method).
It will look like
var name = Regex.Replace(url, #"(---)|-", m => m.Groups[1].Success ? " - " : " ");
See the C# demo.
So, when (---) part matches, the 3 hyphens are put into Group 1 and the .Success property is set to true. Thus, m => m.Groups[1].Success ? " - " : " " replaces 3 hyphens with space+-+space and 1 hyphen (that may be actually 1 of the 2 consecutive hyphens) with a space.

Here's a solution using LINQ rather than Regex:
var str = "the-great-debate---toilet-paper-over-or-under-the-roll";
var result = str.Split(new string[] {"---"}, StringSplitOptions.None)
.Select(s => s.Replace("-", " "))
.Aggregate((c,n) => $"{c} - {n}");
// result = "the great debate - toilet paper over or under the roll"
Split the string up based on the ---, then remove hyphens from each substring, then join them back together.

The easy way:
name = Regex.Replace(name, "\b-|-\b", " ");
The show-off way:
name = Regex.Replace(name, "(\b)?-(?(1)|\b)", " ");

How can I split part of a string that is inconsistent?

I have the following string:
01-21-27-0000-00-048 and it is easy to split it apart because each section is separated by a -, but sometimes this string is represented as 01-21-27-0000-00048, so splitting it is not as easy because the last 2 parts are combined. How can I handle this? Also, what about the case where it might be something like 01-21-27-0000-00.048
In case anyone is curious, this is a parcel number and it varies from county to county and a county can have 1 format or they can have 100 formats.

This is a very good case for using regular expressions. You string matches the following regexp:
(\d{2})-(\d{2})-(\d{2})-(\d{4})-(\d{2})[.-]?(\d{3})
Match the input against this expression, and harvest the six groups of digits from the match:
var str = new[] {
"01-21-27-0000-00048", "01-21-27-0000-00.048", "01-21-27-0000-00-048"
};
foreach (var s in str) {
var m = Regex.Match(s, #"(\d{2})-(\d{2})-(\d{2})-(\d{4})-(\d{2})[.-]?(\d{3})");
for (var i = 1 /* one, not zero */ ; i != m.Groups.Count ; i++) {
Console.Write("{0} ", m.Groups[i]);
}
Console.WriteLine();
}
If you would like to allow for other characters, say, letters in the segments that are separated by dashes, you could use \w instead of \d to denote a letter, a digit, or an underscore. If you would like to allow an unspecified number of such characters within a known range, say, two to four, you can use {2,4} in the regexp instead of the more specific {2}, which means "exactly two". For example,
(\w{2,3})-(\w{2})-(\w{2})-(\d{4})-(\d{2})[.-]?(\d{3})
lets the first segment contain two to three digits or letters, and also allow for letters in segments two and three.

Normalize the string first.
I.e. if you know that the last part is always three characters, then insert a - as the fourth-to-last character, then split the resultant string. Along the same line, convert the dot '.' to a dash '-' and split that string.

Replace all the char which are not digit with emptyString('').
then any of your string become in the format like
012127000000048
now you can use the divide it in (2, 2, 2, 4, 2, 3) parts.

Removing words with special characters in them

I have a long string composed of a number of different words.
I want to go through all of them, and if the word contains a special character or number (except '-'), or starts with a Capital letter, I want to delete it (the whole word not just that character). For all intents and purposes 'foreign' letters can count as special characters.
The obvious solution is to run a loop through each word (after splitting it) and then a loop through each character - but I'm hoping there's a faster way of doing it? Perhaps using Regex but I've almost no experience with it.
Thanks
ADDED:
(What I want for example:)
Input: "this Is an Example of 5 words in an input like-so from example.com"
Output: {this,an,of,words,in,an,input,like-so,from}
(What I've tried so far)
List<string> response = new List<string>();
string[] splitString = text.Split(' ');
foreach (string s in splitString)
{
bool add = true;
foreach (char c in s.ToCharArray())
{
if (!(c.Equals('-') || (Char.IsLetter(c) && Char.IsLower(c))))
{
add = false;
break;
}
if (add)
{
response.Add(s);
}
}
}
Edit 2:
For me a word should be a number of characters (a..z) seperated by a space. ,/./!/... at the end shouldn't count for the 'special character' condition (which is really mostly just to remove urls or the like)
So:
"I saw a dog. It was black!"
should result in
{saw,a,dog,was,black}

So you want to find all "words" that only contain characters a-z or -, for words that are separated by spaces?
A regex like this will find such words:
(?<!\S)[a-z-]+(?!\S)
To also allow for words that end with single punctuation, you could use:
(?<!\S)[a-z-]+(?=[,.!?:;]?(?!\S))
Example (ideone):
var re = #"(?<!\S)[a-z-]+(?=[,.!?:;]?(?!\S))";
var str = "this, Is an! Example of 5 words in an input like-so from example.com foo: bar?";
var m = Regex.Matches(str, re);
Console.WriteLine("Matched: ");
foreach (Match i in m)
Console.Write(i + " ");
Notice the punctuation in the string.
Output:
Matched:
this an of words in an input like-so from foo bar

How about this?
(?<=^|\s+)(?[a-z-]+)(?=$|\s+)
Edit: Meant (?<=^|\s+)(?<word>[a-z\-]+)(?=(?:\.|,|!|\.\.\.)?(?:$|\s+))
Rules:
Word can only be preceded by start of line or some number of whitespace characters
Word can only be followed by end of line or some number of whitespace characters (Edit supports words ending with periods, commas, exclamation points, and ellipses)
Word can only contain lower case (latin) letters and dashes
The named group containing each word is "word"

Have a look at Microsoft's How to: Search Strings Using Regular Expressions (C# Programming Guide) - it's about regexes in C#.

List<string> strings = new List<string>() {"asdf", "sdf-sd", "sdfsdf"};
for (int i = strings.Count-1; i > 0; i--)
{
if (strings[i].Contains("-"))
{
strings.Remove(strings[i]);
}
}

This could be a starting point. right now it just checks only for "." as a special char. This outputs : "this an of words in an like-so from"
string pattern = #"[A-Z]\w+|\w*[0-9]+\w*|\w*[\.]+\w*";
string line = "this Is an Example of 5 words in an in3put like-so from example.com";
System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex r = new System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex(pattern);
line = r.Replace(line,"");

You can do this in two ways, the white-list way and the black-list way. With a white-list you define the set of characters that you consider to be acceptable and with the black-list its the opposite.
Lets assume the white-list way and that you accept only characters a-z, A-Z and the - character. Additionally you have the rule that the first character of a word cannot be an upper case character.
With this you can do something like this:
string target = "This is a white-list example: (Foo, bar1)";
var matches = Regex.Matches(target, #"(?:\b)(?<Word>[a-z]{1}[a-zA-Z\-]*)(?:\b)");
string[] words = matches.Cast<Match>().Select(m => m.Value).ToArray();
Console.WriteLine(string.Join(", ", words));
Outputs:
// is, a, white-list, example

You can use look-aheads and look-behinds to do this. Here's a regex that matches your example:
(?<=\s|^)[a-z-]+(?=\s|$)
The explanation is: match one or more alphabetic characters (lowercase only, plus hyphen), as long as what comes before the characters is whitespace (or the start of the string), and as long as what comes after is whitespace or the end of the string.
All you need to do now is plug that into System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.Matches(input, regexString) to get your list of words.
Reference: http://www.mikesdotnetting.com/Article/46/CSharp-Regular-Expressions-Cheat-Sheet