VB.NET Modify Matching with Access Database - regex

Question

i'm working in a dictionary program
as example if i want to get this line from database:
i suppose to write this in english textbox:
but if i wrote it like this:
no match is found while it is the same no comma
or any other modification except the new line
i failed to modify the code to make the program match a sentence
of words regardless of new line in between
the code of the translation function:
Function getexactsubtitles(ByVal content As String) As String
Try
Dim count As Integer = 0
Dim connectionall As New OleDb.OleDbConnection(connectionString)
Using adp As New OleDbDataAdapter
Using tbl As New DataTable
Using cmd As OleDbCommand = New OleDbCommand("SELECT * FROM [Subtitles]", connectionall)
cmd.Parameters.AddWithValue("#english", String.Concat("%", content, "%"))
adp.SelectCommand = cmd
If adp.Fill(tbl) > 0 Then
For Each row As DataRow In tbl.Rows
Dim en As String = row.Item("English").Replace("?", "\?")
Dim ar As String = row.Item("Arabic")
count += Regex.Matches(content, en, RegexOptions.IgnoreCase).Count
content = Regex.Replace(content, en, ar, RegexOptions.IgnoreCase)
Next
End If
End Using
End Using
End Using
MsgBox(IIf(count = 0, "لم يتم العثور على أى تطابق تام داخل قاعدة البيانات", "عدد الحالات المطابقة تماماً التى عثر عليها داخل قاعدة البيانات (" & " " & count & " " & ") من الجمل والكلمات"))
Return content
Catch ex As Exception
MsgBox(ex.Message)
End Try
getexactsubtitles = ""
End Function
please notice this part:
Using cmd As OleDbCommand = New OleDbCommand("SELECT * FROM [Subtitles]", connectionall)
cmd.Parameters.AddWithValue("#english", String.Concat("%", content, "%"))
this is my try to do the job but for some reason it is not working
code for translation button:
Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
TextBox2.Text = getexactsubtitles(TextBox1.Text)

Answer 1

If I understand correctly, you are using Regex.Replace() and the pattern is stored in the first column of a table.
And all you need is for " " to also match newlines.
I think you should consider replacing " " with \s+ in your pattern, since it matches any of these characters: [\r\n\t\f ]. More examples
The "+" in \s+ is to repeat one or more times. That way, it can match
How are you [space] + [cr] + [lf]
today tommy?
Solution
In the example you provided,
[English] | [Arabic]
how\s+are\s+you\s+today\s+tommy\? | asking about tommy's health
Aternative: if you can't store that pattern in the database, replace it in your code (this is not quite efficient)
Dim en As String = row.Item("English").Replace("?", "\?").Replace(" ","\s+")
Also, I noticed you are escaping the question marks. You should also be aware there might be some other metacharacters. So please consider using Regex.Escape() instead.