Accessing Individual Characters in C#

You can use array notation with an index value to acquire read-only access to individual characters, as in the following example:

C#

string s5 = "Printing backwards";

for (int i = 0; i < s5.Length; i++)
{
    System.Console.Write(s5[s5.Length - i - 1]);
}
// Output: "sdrawkcab gnitnirP"

If the String methods do not provide the functionality that you must have to modify individual characters in a string, you can use a StringBuilder object to modify the individual chars “in-place”, and then create a new string to store the results by using the StringBuilder methods. In the following example, assume that you must modify the original string in a particular way and then store the results for future use:

C#

string question = "hOW DOES mICROSOFT wORD DEAL WITH THE cAPS lOCK KEY?";
System.Text.StringBuilder sb = new System.Text.StringBuilder(question);

for (int j = 0; j < sb.Length; j++)
{
    if (System.Char.IsLower(sb[j]) == true)
        sb[j] = System.Char.ToUpper(sb[j]);
    else if (System.Char.IsUpper(sb[j]) == true)
        sb[j] = System.Char.ToLower(sb[j]);
}
// Store the new string.
string corrected = sb.ToString();
System.Console.WriteLine(corrected);
// Output: How does Microsoft Word deal with the Caps Lock key?            

Declaring and Initializing Strings

You can declare and initialize strings in various ways, as shown in the following example:

C#

// Declare without initializing.
string message1;

// Initialize to null.
string message2 = null;

// Initialize as an empty string.
// Use the Empty constant instead of the literal "".
string message3 = System.String.Empty;

//Initialize with a regular string literal.
string oldPath = "c:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Visual Studio 8.0";

// Initialize with a verbatim string literal.
string newPath = @"c:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0";

// Use System.String if you prefer.
System.String greeting = "Hello World!";

// In local variables (i.e. within a method body)
// you can use implicit typing.
var temp = "I'm still a strongly-typed System.String!";

// Use a const string to prevent 'message4' from
// being used to store another string value.
const string message4 = "You can't get rid of me!";

// Use the String constructor only when creating
// a string from a char*, char[], or sbyte*. See
// System.String documentation for details.
char[] letters = { 'A', 'B', 'C' };
string alphabet = new string(letters);

Search Strings Using Regular Expressions

The System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex class can be used to search strings. These searches can range in complexity from very simple to making full use of regular expressions. The following are two examples of string searching by using the Regex class.

C#

class TestRegularExpressions
{
    static void Main()
    {
        string[] sentences =
        {
            "C# code",
            "Chapter 2: Writing Code",
            "Unicode",
            "no match here"
        };

        string sPattern = "code";

        foreach (string s in sentences)
        {
            System.Console.Write("{0,24}", s);

            if (System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.IsMatch(s, sPattern, System.Text.RegularExpressions.RegexOptions.IgnoreCase))
            {
                System.Console.WriteLine("  (match for '{0}' found)", sPattern);
            }
            else
            {
                System.Console.WriteLine();
            }
        }

        // Keep the console window open in debug mode.
        System.Console.WriteLine("Press any key to exit.");
        System.Console.ReadKey();

    }
}
/* Output:
           C# code  (match for 'code' found)
           Chapter 2: Writing Code  (match for 'code' found)
           Unicode  (match for 'code' found)
           no match here
*/

Regular Expression Symbols

^	The start of a string.
$	The end of a string.
.	Any character.
*	Zero or more occurrences of the preceding.
\	Escape used for special characters or when searching for a specific  character that has another meaning in regular expression syntax. For example, to search for the period character, you would have to use “\ .” because the period means any character in regular expression syntax.