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Find hashtags in string

I am working on a Xamarin.Forms PCL project in C# and would like to detect all the hashtags.
I tried splitting at spaces and checking if the word begins with an # but the problem is if the post contains two spaces like "Hello #World Test" it would lose that the double space
string body = "Example string with a #hashtag in it";
string newbody = "";
foreach (var word in body.Split(' '))
{
if (word.StartsWith("#"))
newbody += "[" + word + "]";
newbody += word;
}
Goal output:
Example string with a [#hashtag] in it
I also only want it to have A-Z a-z 0-9 and _ stopping at any other character
Test #H3ll0_W0rld$%Test => Test [#H3ll0_W0rld]$%Test
Other Stack questions try to detect the string and extract it, I would like it work with it and put it back in the string without losing anything that methods such as splitting by certain characters would lose.

You can use Regex with #\w+ and $&
Explanation
# matches the character # literally (case sensitive)
\w+ matches any word character (equal to [a-zA-Z0-9_])
+ Quantifier — Matches between one and unlimited times, as many times as possible, giving back as needed (greedy)
$& Includes a copy of the entire match in the replacement string.
Example
var input = "asdads sdfdsf #burgers, #rabbits dsfsdfds #sdf #dfgdfg";
var regex = new Regex(#"#\w+");
var matches = regex.Matches(input);
foreach (var match in matches)
{
Console.WriteLine(match);
}
or
var result = regex.Replace(input, "[$&]" );
Console.WriteLine(result);
Ouput
#burgers
#rabbits
#sdf
#dfgdfg
asdads sdfdsf [#burgers], [#rabbits] dsfsdfds [#sdf] [#dfgdfg]
Updated Demo here
Another Example

Use a regular expression: \#\w*
string pattern = "\#\w*";
Regex rgx = new Regex(pattern, RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);
MatchCollection matches = rgx.Matches(input);

Regex to find special pattern

I have a string to parse. First I have to check if string contains special pattern:
I wanted to know if there is substrings which starts with "$(",
and end with ")",
and between those start and end special strings,there should not be
any white-empty space,
it should not include "$" character inside it.
I have a little regex for it in C#
string input = "$(abc)";
string pattern = #"\$\(([^$][^\s]*)\)";
Regex rgx = new Regex(pattern, RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);
MatchCollection matches = rgx.Matches(input);
foreach (var match in matches)
{
Console.WriteLine("value = " + match);
}
It works for many cases but failed at input= $(a$() , which inside the expression is empty. I wanted NOT to match when input is $().[ there is nothing between start and end identifiers].
What is wrong with my regex?

Note: [^$] matches a single character but not of $
Use the below regex if you want to match $()
\$\(([^\s$]*)\)
Use the below regex if you don't want to match $(),
\$\(([^\s$]+)\)
* repeats the preceding token zero or more times.
+ Repeats the preceding token one or more times.
Your regex \(([^$][^\s]*)\) is wrong. It won't allow $ as a first character inside () but it allows it as second or third ,, etc. See the demo here. You need to combine the negated classes in your regex inorder to match any character not of a space or $.

Your current regex does not match $() because the [^$] matches at least 1 character. The only way I can think of where you would have this match would be when you have an input containing more than one parens, like:
$()(something)
In those cases, you will also need to exclude at least the closing paren:
string pattern = #"\$\(([^$\s)]+)\)";
The above matches for example:
abc in $(abc) and
abc and def in $(def)$()$(abc)(something).

Simply replace the * with a + and merge the options.
string pattern = #"\$\(([^$\s]+)\)";
+ means 1 or more
* means 0 or more

How can I use lookbehind in a C# Regex in order to skip matches of repeated prefix patterns?

How can I use lookbehind in a C# Regex in order to skip matches of repeated prefix patterns?
Example - I'm trying to have the expression match all the b characters following any number of a characters:
Regex expression = new Regex("(?<=a).*");
foreach (Match result in expression.Matches("aaabbbb"))
MessageBox.Show(result.Value);
returns aabbbb, the lookbehind matching only an a. How can I make it so that it would match all the as in the beginning?
I've tried
Regex expression = new Regex("(?<=a+).*");
and
Regex expression = new Regex("(?<=a)+.*");
with no results...
What I'm expecting is bbbb.

Are you looking for a repeated capturing group?
(.)\1*
This will return two matches.
Given:
aaabbbb
This will result in:
aaa
bbbb
This:
(?<=(.))(?!\1).*
Uses the above principal, first checking that the finding the previous character, capturing it into a back reference, and then asserting that that character is not the next character.
That matches:
bbbb

I figured it out eventually:
Regex expression = new Regex("(?<=a+)[^a]+");
foreach (Match result in expression.Matches(#"aaabbbb"))
MessageBox.Show(result.Value);
I must not allow the as to me matched by the non-lookbehind group. This way, the expression will only match those b repetitions that follow a repetitions.
Matching aaabbbb yields bbbb and matching aaabbbbcccbbbbaaaaaabbzzabbb results in bbbbcccbbbb, bbzz and bbb.

The reason the look-behind is skipping the "a" is because it is consuming the first "a" (but no capturing it), then it captures the rest.
Would this pattern work for you instead? New pattern: \ba+(.+)\b
It uses a word boundary \b to anchor either ends of the word. It matches at least one "a" followed by the rest of the characters till the word boundary ends. The remaining characters are captured in a group so you can reference them easily.
string pattern = #"\ba+(.+)\b";
foreach (Match m in Regex.Matches("aaabbbb", pattern))
{
Console.WriteLine("Match: " + m.Value);
Console.WriteLine("Group capture: " + m.Groups[1].Value);
}
UPDATE: If you want to skip the first occurrence of any duplicated letters, then match the rest of the string, you could do this:
string pattern = #"\b(.)(\1)*(?<Content>.+)\b";
foreach (Match m in Regex.Matches("aaabbbb", pattern))
{
Console.WriteLine("Match: " + m.Value);
Console.WriteLine("Group capture: " + m.Groups["Content"].Value);
}

Regex to match and return group names

I need to match the following strings and returns the values as groups:
abctic
abctac
xyztic
xyztac
ghhtic
ghhtac
Pattern is wrote with grouping is as follows:
(?<arch>[abc,xyz,ghh])(?<flavor>[tic,tac]$)
The above returns only parts of group names. (meaning match is not correct).
If I use * in each sub pattern instead of $ at the end, groups are correct, but that would mean that abcticff will also match.
Please let me know what my correct regex should be.

Your pattern is incorrect because a pipe symbol | is used to specify alternate matches, not a comma in brackets as you were using, i.e., [x,y].
Your pattern should be: ^(?<arch>abc|xyz|ghh)(?<flavor>tic|tac)$
The ^ and $ metacharacters ensures the string matches from start to end. If you need to match text in a larger string you could replace them with \b to match on a word boundary.
Try this approach:
string[] inputs = { "abctic", "abctac", "xyztic", "xyztac", "ghhtic", "ghhtac" };
string pattern = #"^(?<arch>abc|xyz|ghh)(?<flavor>tic|tac)$";
foreach (var input in inputs)
{
var match = Regex.Match(input, pattern);
if (match.Success)
{
Console.WriteLine("Arch: {0} - Flavor: {1}",
match.Groups["arch"].Value,
match.Groups["flavor"].Value);
}
else
Console.WriteLine("No match for: " + input);
}

Regex help with sample pattern. C#

I decided to use Regex, now I have two problems :)
Given the input string "hello world [2] [200] [%8] [%1c] [%d]",
What would be an approprite pattern to match the instances of "[%8]" "[%1c]" + "[%d]" ? (So a percentage sign, followed by any length alphanumeric, all enclosed in square brackets).
for the "[2]" and [200], I already use
Regex.Matches(input, "(\\[)[0-9]*?\\]");
Which works fine.
Any help would be appreicated.

MatchCollection matches = null;
try {
Regex regexObj = new Regex(#"\[[%\w]+\]");
matches = regexObj.Matches(input);
if (matches.Count > 0) {
// Access individual matches using matches.Item[]
} else {
// Match attempt failed
}
} catch (ArgumentException ex) {
// Syntax error in the regular expression
}

The Regex needed to match this pattern of "[%anyLengthAlphaNumeric]" in a string is this "[(%\w+)]"
The leading "[" is escaped with the "\" then you are creating a grouping of characters with the (...). This grouping is defined as %\w+. The \w is a shortcut for all word characters including letters and digits no spaces. The + matches one or more instances of the previous symbol, character or group. Then the trailing "]" is escaped with a "\" and catches the closing bracket.
Here is a basic code example:
string input = #"hello world [2] [200] [%8] [%1c] [%d]";
Regex example = new Regex(#"\[(%\w+)\]");
MatchCollection matches = example.Matches(input);

Try this:
Regex.Matches(input, "\\[%[0-9a-f]+\\]");
Or as a combined regular expression:
Regex.Matches(input, "\\[(\\d+|%[0-9a-f]+)\\]");

How about #"\[%[0-9a-f]*?\]"?
string input = "hello world [2] [200] [%8] [%1c] [%d]";
MatchCollection matches = Regex.Matches(input, #"\[%[0-9a-f]*?\]");
matches.Count // = 3