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How do you find a delimited/isolated substring with string.contains?

I am trying to parse out and identify some values from strings that I have in a list.
I am using string.Contains to identify the value im looking for, but I am getting hits even if the value is surrounded by other text. How can I make sure I only get a hit if the value is isolated?
Example parse:
Looking for value = "302"
string sale =
"199708. (30), italiano, delim fabricata modella, serialNumber302. tnr F18529302E.";
var result = sale.ToLower().Contains(”302”));
In this example I will get a hit for "serialNumber302" and "F18529302E", which in the context is incorrect since I only want a hit if it finds “302” isolated, like “dontfind302 shouldfind 302”.
Any ideas on how to do this?

If you try Regex, you can define a word boundary using \b:
string sale =
"199708. (30), italiano, delim fabricata modella, serialNumber302. tnr F18529302E.";
bool result = Regex.IsMatch(sale, #"\b302\b"); // false
sale = "A string with 302 isolated";
result = Regex.IsMatch(sale, #"\b302\b"); // true
So 302 will only be found if it is at the start of the string, at the end of the string, or if it is surrounded by non-word characters i.e. not a-z A-Z 0-9 or _

EDIT: From the comments I realiſed that it waſn't clear whether or not "serialNum302" ſhould get a hit. I aſſumed ſo in this anſwer.
I ſee a few eaſy ways you could do this:
1) If the input is always a number as in the example, one option would be to only ſearch for ſubſtrings not ſurrounded by more numbers, by examining all the reſults of an initial ſearch and comparing their neighboring characters againſt the ſtring "0123456789". I really don't think this is the beſt option though, becauſe ſooner or later it's goïng to break when it miſinterprets one of the other bits of data.
2) If the ſtring sale always has the ſeriäl number in the format "serialNumber[Num]", inſtead of juſt looking for Num, look for "serialNumber" + Num, as this is leſs likely to be meſſed up with the other data.
3) From your ſtring, it looks like you have a ſtandardized format that's beïng introduced to the ſyſtem. In this caſe, parſe it in a ſtandardized way, e.g. by ſplitting it into ſubſtrings at the commas, then parſing each ſubſtring differently as it requires.

Convert string into three letter Abbreviation

I've recently been given a new project by work to convert Any given string into 1-3 letter abbreviations.
An example of something similar to what I must produce is below however the strings given could be anything:
switch (string.Name)
{
case "Emotional, Social & Personal": return "ESP";
case "Speech & Language": return "SL";
case "Physical Development": return "PD";
case "Understanding the World": return "UW";
case "English": return "E";
case "Expressive Art & Design": return "EAD";
case "Science": return "S";
case "Understanding The World And It's People"; return "UTW";
}
I figured that I could use string.Split & count the number of words in the array. Then add conditions for handling particular length strings as generally these sentences wont be longer than 4 words however problems I will encounter are.
If a string is longer than I expected it wouldn't be handled
Symbols must be excluded from the abbreviation
Any suggestions as to the logic I could apply would be very appreciated.
Thanks

Something like the following should work with the examples you have given.
string abbreviation = new string(
input.Split()
.Where(s => s.Length > 0 && char.IsLetter(s[0]) && char.IsUpper(s[0]))
.Take(3)
.Select(s => s[0])
.ToArray());
You may need to adjust the filter based on your expected input. Possibly adding a list of words to ignore.

It seems that if it doesn't matter, you could just go for the simplest thing. If the string is shorter than 4 words, take the first letter of each string.
If the string is longer than 4, eliminate all "ands", and "ors", then do the same.
To be better, you could have a lookup dictionary of words that you wouldn't care about - like "the" or "so".
You could also keep an 3D char array, in alphabetical order for quick lookup. That way, you wouldn't have any repeating abbreviations.
However, there are only a finite number of abbreviations. Therefore, it might be better to keep the 'useless' words stored in another string. That way, if the abbreviation your program does by default is already taken, you can use the useless words to make a new one.
If all of the above fail, you could start to linearly move through string to get a different 3 letter word abbreviation - sort of like codons on DNA.

Perfect place to use a dictionary
Dictionary<string, string> dict = new Dictionary<string, string>() {
{"Emotional, Social & Personal", "ESP"},
{"Speech & Language","SL"},
{"Physical Development", "PD"},
{"Understanding the World","UW"},
{"English","E"},
{"Expressive Art & Design","EAD"},
{"Science","S"},
{"Understanding The World And It's People","UTW"}
};
string results = dict["English"];​

Following snippet may help you:
string input = "Emotional, Social & Personal"; // an example from the question
string plainText = CultureInfo.CurrentCulture.TextInfo.ToTitleCase(Regex.Replace(input, #"[^0-9A-Za-z ,]", "").ToLower()); // will produce a text without special charactors
string abbreviation = String.Join("",plainText.Split(" ".ToCharArray(),StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries).Select(y =>y[0]).ToArray());// get first character from each word

How can I make phone numbers pretty/user friendly when their existing formats are inconsistent?

I'm binding a textbox to a member of a class, and I need to tweak the appearance of the phone number so that it's easier to read (the user doesn't want to see values such as "1234567890" or "+01234567890"). So, I've got this code:
var bindingPhone = new Binding("Text", platypusInfo, "Phone1", true);
bindingPhone.Format += phoneBinding_Format;
textBoxPhoneNum1.DataBindings.Add(bindingPhone);
...
private void phoneBinding_Format(object sender, ConvertEventArgs e) {
e.Value = ??How can I deal with this??
}
But the phone values, although usually either "NNNNNNNNNN" (such as "1234567890") or "+NNNNNNNNNNN" (such as "+01234567890") can also appear in a number of other permutations, such as:
(NN) NNNN NNNN
++NNNNNNNNNNNNN
+NNNNNNNNNNNNN
+NN NNNNNNNNNNN
NNNNNNNNNNNN
Is there anything I can do in phoneBinding_Format() that will make these phone numbers easier to read without breaking them into nonsensical parts, such as "43-4859-4365" instead of "434-859-4365"?
UPDATE
Due to these factors:
1) I'm working on several projects simultaneously and need to get back to another one
2) Our two most common formats comprise the lion's share of our phone numbers
3) This is just a "nice feature" not a "must-have" feature
...I've settled on the following for now, based on a Jon Skeet answer:
private void phoneBinding_Format(object sender, ConvertEventArgs e)
{
const int UK_PHONE_LEN = 9; // +NNNNNNNN
const int US_PHONE_FORMAT_LEN = 10; // NNNNNNNNNN
const int COMMON_INTERNATIONAL_FORMAT_LEN = 12; //+NNNNNNNNNNN
string phone;
string area;
string major;
string minor;
string intl_firstsegment;
string intl_secondsegment;
string intl_thirdsegment;
string intl_fourthsegment;
string intl_fifthsegment;
if (e.Value.ToString().Length == US_PHONE_FORMAT_LEN)
{
phone = e.Value.ToString();
area = phone.Substring(0, 3);
major = phone.Substring(3, 3);
minor = phone.Substring(6);
e.Value = string.Format("{0}-{1}-{2}", area, major, minor);
}
else if ((e.Value.ToString().Length == UK_PHONE_LEN) && (e.Value.ToString()[0] == '+')) {
phone = e.Value.ToString();
intl_firstsegment = phone.Substring(0, 2);
intl_secondsegment = phone.Substring(2, 3);
intl_thirdsegment = phone.Substring(5);
e.Value = string.Format("+{0}-{1}-{2}", intl_firstsegment, intl_secondsegment, intl_thirdsegment);
}
else if ((e.Value.ToString().Length == COMMON_INTERNATIONAL_PHONE_LEN) && (e.Value.ToString()[0] == '+'))
{
phone = e.Value.ToString();
intl_firstsegment = phone.Substring(0, 2);
intl_secondsegment = phone.Substring(2, 2);
intl_thirdsegment = phone.Substring(4, 3);
intl_fourthsegment = phone.Substring(7, 2);
intl_fifthsegment = phone.Substring(9);
e.Value = string.Format("+{0}-{1}-{2}-{3}-{4}", intl_firstsegment, intl_secondsegment, intl_thirdsegment, intl_fourthsegment, intl_fifthsegment);
}
}
BTW, an interesting thing happened on the way to breakpoint nirvana: I originally had these tests (1st character is a plus sign and length is the expected) reversed, and got: System.IndexOutOfRangeException was unhandled by user code
Message=Index was outside the bounds of the array.
Reversing the condition so that length was checked first (which naturally doesn't fail when length is 0/string is empty) fixed it (since then no attempt is made to access char 0).

Google's LibPhoneNumber could be just what you need if you want to support international phone numbers in addition to US (and Canadian, which are 100% compatible with US) numbers.
Google's common Java, C++ and Javascript library for parsing, formatting, storing and validating international phone numbers. The Java version is optimized for running on smartphones, and is used by the Android framework since 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich).
Using it from C#:
http://blog.thekieners.com/2011/06/06/using-googles-libphonenumber-in-microsoft-net-with-c/
C# port
https://bitbucket.org/pmezard/libphonenumber-csharp/wiki/Home

The easiest approach would be to just strip out all non-numeric characters and whitespace from the string before applying your formatting.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/844skk0h.aspx

Interesting code snippet here. Can be used to pretty-up phone numbers before displaying them.
Input: xxxxxxxxxx or xxx-xxx-xxxx or (xxx) xxx-xxxx, Output: (xxx) xxx-xxxx
Code:
private string formatPhoneNumber(string number) {
System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex pattern = new System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex("^\\(?([1-9]\\d{2})\\)?\\D*?([1-9]\\d{2})\\D*?(\\d{4})$");
Match re = Regex.Match(number, pattern.ToString());
return "(" + Convert.ToString(re.Groups[1]) + ") " + Convert.ToString(re.Groups[2]) + "-" + Convert.ToString(re.Groups[3]);
}

I would personally specify that only numeric phone numbers are allowed (meaning the user may not enter phone numbers like 1-800-FLOWERS) and then strip all non numeric characters, before formatting.

What I'm getting is that you have numbers stored in ten-digit character format ("1234567890"), without formatting, but now you need to add formatting to make the number more readable without making the number nonsensical for the country the number is used in. As different countries/regions have different default formats for numbers, the NANPA system of (ACD) COX-SUBS for area code, central office and subscriber doesn't always apply.
My suggestion would be to maintain a table or dictionary of phone number masks, then use a MaskedTextBox and bind not only the number, but the mask, to data in the contact object.
For instance, phone mask ID 1 might be for NANPA numbers: "000-000-0000". Phone mask ID 2 might be for London-metro numbers and would be "\000 0000 0000" (the leading digit is always a zero, and should be omitted when calling from outside the country). ID 3 might be for French phone numbers: "00 00 00 00 00". You can specify a "get-only" property on the object that will provide the actual mask string to the TextBox, and bind a different control (a drop-down maybe) that the user can choose to display the number in the correct format (which you can save for later use with that contact). Most of the time you'll be able to guess based on country, but this isn't always the case.
Understand that you will need a LOT of masks, and they aren't always ten digits. While the NANPA system is relatively consistent, UK phone numbers are a mess; geographic area codes are variable-length, and the total number can be ten or eleven digits, so there are six different masks just for UK numbers based on geographic area code. In Mexico, area codes can be two or three digits, and the total number is ten digits. French phone numbers are ten digits in groups of two. In addition, the actual combination of digits to be dialed depends on where you're calling from; if the call is always from the US, many European number systems drop their leading zero used for in-country calls and you instead dial the country code.

Levenshtein algorithm with custom character mapping

I want to use Levenshtein algorithm to search in a list of strings. I want to implement a custom character mapping in order to type latin characters and searching in items in greek.
mapping example:
a = α, ά
b = β
i = ι,ί,ΐ,ϊ
... (etc)
u = ου, ού
So searching using abu in a list with
αbu
abού
αού (all greek characters)
will result with all items in the list. (item order is not a problem)
How do I apply a mapping in the algorithm? (this is where I start)

I think the best way would be to preprocess your symbols to one definite form (e.g. all in latin) and then use Levenshtein as you would do normaly.
In pseudocode:
int func(String latinStr, String greekStr) {
String mappedStr = convertToLatin(greekStr); // e.g. now αβ would be ab
return Levenstein(latinStr, mappedStr);
}
And in convertToLatin you may symbol-by-symbol ask Dictionary with mappings for a replace and construct new string

Converting "Bizarre" Chars in String to Roman Chars

I need to be able to convert user input to [a-z] roman characters ONLY (not case sensitive). So, there are only 26 characters that I am interested in.
However, the user can type in any "form" of those characters that they wish. The Spanish "n", the French "e", and the German "u" can all have accents from the user input (which are removed by the program).
I've gotten pretty close with these two extension methods:
public static string LettersOnly(this string Instring)
{
char[] aChar = Instring.ToCharArray();
int intCount = 0;
string strTemp = "";
for (intCount = 0; intCount <= Instring.Length - 1; intCount++)
{
if (char.IsLetter(aChar[intCount]) )
{
strTemp += aChar[intCount];
}
}
return strTemp;
}
public static string RemoveAccentMarks(this string s)
{
string normalizedString = s.Normalize(NormalizationForm.FormD);
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
char c;
for (int i = 0; i <= normalizedString.Length - 1; i++)
{
c = normalizedString[i];
if (System.Globalization.CharUnicodeInfo.GetUnicodeCategory(c) != System.Globalization.UnicodeCategory.NonSpacingMark)
{
sb.Append(c);
}
}
return sb.ToString();
}
Here is an example test:
string input = "Àlièñ451";
input = input.LettersOnly().RemoveAccentMarks().ToLower();
console.WriteLine(input);
Result: "alien" (as expected)
This works for 99.9% of the cases. However, a few characters seem to pass all of the checks.
For instance, "ß" (a German double-s, I think). This is considered by .Net to be a letter. This is not considered by the function above to have any accent marks... but it STILL isn't in the range of a-z, like I need it to be. Ideally, I could convert this to a "B" or an "ss" (whichever is appropriate), but I need to convert it to SOMETHING in the range of a-z.
Another example, the dipthong ("æ"). Again, .Net considers this a "letter". The function above doesn't see any accent, but again, it isn't in the roman 26 character alphabet. In this case, I need to convert to the two letters "ae" (I think).
Is there an easy way to convert ANY worldwide input to the closest roman alphabet equivalent? It is expected that this probably won't be a perfectly clean translation, but I need to trust that the inputs at FlipScript.com are ONLY getting the characters a-z... and nothing else.
Any and all help appreciated.

If I were you, I'd create a Dictionary which would contain the mappings from foreign letters to Roman letters. I'd use this for two reasons:
It will make understanding what you want to do easier to someone who is reading your code.
There are a small, finite, number of these special letters so you don't need to worry about maintenance of the data structure.
I'd put the mappings into an xml file then load them into the data structure at run-time. That way, you do not need to modify any code which uses the characters, you only need to specify the mappings themselves.