GroupCollection.Item[] Property

Definition

Namespace:

System.Text.RegularExpressions

Assembly:

System.Text.RegularExpressions.dll

Enables access to a single member of the collection by integer or string index.

Overloads

Item[Int32]	Enables access to a member of the collection by integer index.
Item[String]	Enables access to a member of the collection by string index.

Item[Int32]

Source:

GroupCollection.cs

Enables access to a member of the collection by integer index.

public:
 property System::Text::RegularExpressions::Group ^ default[int] { System::Text::RegularExpressions::Group ^ get(int groupnum); };

public System.Text.RegularExpressions.Group this[int groupnum] { get; }

member this.Item(int) : System.Text.RegularExpressions.Group

Default Public ReadOnly Property Item(groupnum As Integer) As Group

Parameters

groupnum

Int32

The zero-based index of the collection member to be retrieved.

Property Value

Group

The member of the collection specified by groupnum.

Implements

Item[Int32]

Examples

The following example defines a regular expression that consists of two numbered groups. The first group captures one or more consecutive digits. The second group matches a single character. Because the regular expression engine looks for zero or one occurrence of the first group, it does not always find a match even if the regular expression match is successful. The example then illustrates the result when the Item[Int32] property is used to retrieve an unmatched group, a matched group, and a group that is not defined in the regular expression. The example defines a regular expression pattern (\d+)*(\w)\2, which is interpreted as shown in the following table.

Pattern	Description
(\d+)*	Match one or more occurrence of a decimal digit. This is the first capturing group. Match this pattern either zero or one time.
(\w)	This is the second capturing group.
\k	Match the string captured by the second capturing group.

using System;
using System.Text.RegularExpressions;

public class Example
{
   public static void Main()
   {
      string pattern = @"(\d+)*(\w)\2";
      string input = "AA";
      Match match = Regex.Match(input, pattern);
      
      // Get the first named group.
      Group group1 = match.Groups[1];
      Console.WriteLine("Group 1 value: {0}", group1.Success ? group1.Value : "Empty");
      
      // Get the second named group.
      Group group2 = match.Groups[2];
      Console.WriteLine("Group 2 value: {0}", group2.Success ? group2.Value : "Empty");
      
      // Get a non-existent group.
      Group group3 = match.Groups[3];
      Console.WriteLine("Group 3 value: {0}", group3.Success ? group3.Value : "Empty");
   }
}
// The example displays the following output:
//       Group 1 value: Empty
//       Group 2 value: A
//       Group 3 value: Empty

Imports System.Text.RegularExpressions

Module Example
   Public Sub Main()
      Dim pattern As String = "(\d+)*(\w)\2"
      Dim input As String = "AA"
      Dim match As Match = Regex.Match(input, pattern)
      
      ' Get the first named group.
      Dim group1 As Group = match.Groups.Item(1)
      Console.WriteLine("Group 1 value: {0}", If(group1.Success, group1.Value, "Empty"))
      
      ' Get the second named group.
      Dim group2 As Group = match.Groups.Item(2)
      Console.WriteLine("Group 2 value: {0}", If(group2.Success, group2.Value, "Empty"))
      
      ' Get a non-existent group.
      Dim group3 As Group = match.Groups.Item(3)
      Console.WriteLine("Group 3 value: {0}", If(group3.Success, group3.Value, "Empty"))
   End Sub
End Module
' The example displays the following output:
'       Group 1 value: Empty
'       Group 2 value: A
'       Group 3 value: Empty

Remarks

The Item[Int32] property is the index (in C#) or the default property (in Visual Basic) of the GroupCollection class. It allows you to enumerate the members of the collection by using a foreach statement in C# or a For Each statement in Visual Basic.

You can also use this property to retrieve individual captured groups by their index number. You can retrieve an array that contains the numbers of all capturing groups in a regular expression by calling the instance Regex.GetGroupNumbers method. You can also map named capturing groups to their numbers by calling the instance Regex.GroupNumberFromName method.

You can determine the number of items in the collection by retrieving the value of the Count property. Valid values for the groupnum parameter range from 0 to one less than the number of items in the collection.

The GroupCollection object returned by the Match.Groups property always has at least one member. If the regular expression engine cannot find any matches in a particular input string, the single Group object in the collection has its Group.Success property set to false and its Group.Value property set to String.Empty.

If groupnum is not the index of a member of the collection, or if groupnum is the index of a capturing group that has not been matched in the input string, the method returns a Group object whose Group.Success property is false and whose Group.Value property is String.Empty.

See also

• Grouping Constructs in Regular Expressions

Item[String]

Source:

GroupCollection.cs

Enables access to a member of the collection by string index.

public:
 property System::Text::RegularExpressions::Group ^ default[System::String ^] { System::Text::RegularExpressions::Group ^ get(System::String ^ groupname); };

public System.Text.RegularExpressions.Group this[string groupname] { get; }

member this.Item(string) : System.Text.RegularExpressions.Group

Default Public ReadOnly Property Item(groupname As String) As Group

Parameters

groupname

String

The name of a capturing group.

Property Value

Group

The member of the collection specified by groupname.

Implements

Item[TKey]

Examples

The following example defines a regular expression that consists of two named groups. The first group, numbers, captures one or more consecutive digits. The second group, letter, matches a single character. Because the regular expression engine looks for zero or one occurrence of the pattern defined by the numbers group, the numbers group is not always present even if a match is successful. The example then illustrates the result when the Item[String] property is used to retrieve an unmatched group, a matched group, and a group that is not defined in the regular expression. The example defines a regular expression pattern (?<numbers>\d+)*(?<letter>\w)\k<letter>, which is interpreted as shown in the following table.

Pattern	Description
(?<numbers>\d+)*	Match one or more occurrence of a decimal digit. Name this the numbers capturing group. Match this pattern either zero or one time.
(?<letter>\w)	Match a single word character. Name this the letter capturing group.
\k<letter>	Match the string captured by the letter capturing group.

using System;
using System.Text.RegularExpressions;

public class Example
{
   public static void Main()
   {
      string pattern = @"(?<numbers>\d+)*(?<letter>\w)\k<letter>";
      string input = "AA";
      Match match = Regex.Match(input, pattern);
      
      // Get the first named group.
      Group group1 = match.Groups["numbers"];
      Console.WriteLine("Group 'numbers' value: {0}", group1.Success ? group1.Value : "Empty");
      
      // Get the second named group.
      Group group2 = match.Groups["letter"];
      Console.WriteLine("Group 'letter' value: {0}", group2.Success ? group2.Value : "Empty");
      
      // Get a non-existent group.
      Group group3 = match.Groups["none"];
      Console.WriteLine("Group 'none' value: {0}", group3.Success ? group3.Value : "Empty");
   }
}
// The example displays the following output:
//       Group 'numbers' value: Empty
//       Group 'letter' value: A
//       Group 'none' value: Empty

Imports System.Text.RegularExpressions

Module Example
   Public Sub Main()
      Dim pattern As String = "(?<numbers>\d+)*(?<letter>\w)\k<letter>"
      Dim input As String = "AA"
      Dim match As Match = Regex.Match(input, pattern)
      
      ' Get the first named group.
      Dim group1 As Group = match.Groups.Item("numbers")
      Console.WriteLine("Group 'numbers' value: {0}", If(group1.Success, group1.Value, "Empty"))
      
      ' Get the second named group.
      Dim group2 As Group = match.Groups.Item("letter")
      Console.WriteLine("Group 'letter' value: {0}", If(group2.Success, group2.Value, "Empty"))
      
      ' Get a non-existent group.
      Dim group3 As Group = match.Groups.Item("none")
      Console.WriteLine("Group 'none' value: {0}", If(group3.Success, group3.Value, "Empty"))
   End Sub
End Module
' The example displays the following output:
'       Group 'numbers' value: Empty
'       Group 'letter' value: A
'       Group 'none' value: Empty

Remarks

groupName can be either the name of a capturing group that is defined by the (?<name>) element in a regular expression, or the string representation of the number of a capturing group that is defined by a grouping construct. For more information about groups in regular expressions, see Grouping Constructs.

You can retrieve the names of all the captured groups in a Regex object by calling the Regex.GetGroupNames method. You can also map the numbers of capturing groups in a regular expression to their names by calling the Regex.GroupNameFromNumber method. Individual names from the array can then be passed to the Item[String] property to retrieve the captured string.

If groupname is not the name of a capturing group in the collection, or if groupname is the name of a capturing group that has not been matched in the input string, the method returns a Group object whose Group.Success property is false and whose Group.Value property is String.Empty.

See also

• Grouping Constructs in Regular Expressions