How do I create a regex to remove underscore - regex

Question

I am using MVC 3 with Razor. I can't figure out how to code a string extension regex to take this:
This_is_some_text
to display:
This is some text
I set up some enums for a drop down list, so they appear thusly (obviously I can't create an enum with a space):
public enum MyProperty
{
This_is_some_text,
This_is_some_other_text
}
I just cannot figure out the regex is to do what I want if I am doing this:
public static string EnumToDisplay(this string str)
{
return Regex.Replace(str, "[What is the regex I should use?]");
}
As a bonus for me I would also like to add a period "." to the end of the enum. The reason for this is that I have OCD and my enums are taking the form of short sentences. :)
Thanks!

Answer 1

Why not use String.Replace() for this? RegEx seems a bit overkill.
public static string EnumToDisplay(this string str)
{
return str.Replace('_', ' ') + ".";
}

Answer 2

Why do you want to use regular expressions? A very wise man once said, I quote:
Some people, when confronted with a problem, think "I know, I'll use
regular expressions." Now they have two problems.
How about using the [Display] attribute which is kinda designed exactly for this purpose:
public enum MyProperty
{
[Display(Name = "This is some super text")]
This_is_some_text,
[Display(Name = "And this is some other text")]
This_is_some_other_text
}
and then writing a custom Html helper:
public static class HtmlExtensions
{
public static IHtmlString DisplayForEnum<TModel, TProperty>(this HtmlHelper<TModel> htmlHelper, Expression<Func<TModel, TProperty>> expression)
{
if (!typeof(TProperty).IsEnum)
{
throw new ArgumentException("sorry this helper is inteded to be used with enum types");
}
var model = htmlHelper.ViewData.Model;
if (htmlHelper.ViewData.Model == null)
{
return MvcHtmlString.Empty;
}
var field = typeof(TProperty).GetField(expression.Compile()(htmlHelper.ViewData.Model).ToString());
if (field == null)
{
return new HtmlString(htmlHelper.Encode(htmlHelper.ViewData.Model.ToString()));
}
var display = field.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(DisplayAttribute), true).FirstOrDefault() as DisplayAttribute;
if (display == null)
{
return new HtmlString(htmlHelper.Encode(htmlHelper.ViewData.Model.ToString()));
}
return new HtmlString(htmlHelper.Encode(display.Name));
}
}
So now assuming you have a view model:
public class MyViewModel
{
public MyProperty Foo { get; set; }
}
and a controller:
public class HomeController : Controller
{
public ActionResult Index()
{
var model = new MyViewModel
{
Foo = MyProperty.This_is_some_other_text
};
return View(model);
}
}
you could use the custom helper we just wrote in the view to display a user friendly text that we might have associated to an ugly enum. Hey, now you could even have this working with globalization and multiple languages using resources:
#model MyViewModel
#Html.DisplayForEnum(x => x.Foo)

Answer 3

I do not know about asp.net - but there should be a really simple method that replaces one character with another char. Like:
String.replace( myString, '_',' ' );

Answer 4

You can use the replacement pattern which is also called substitution.
You can find graet info here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ewy2t5e0.aspx
Good luck