Finding all positions of substring in a larger string in C#

I have a large string I need to parse, and I need to find all the instances of extract"(me,i-have lots. of]punctuation, and store the index of each to a list.

So say this piece of string was in the beginning and middle of the l开发者_C百科arger string, both of them would be found, and their indexes would be added to the List. and the List would contain 0 and the other index whatever it would be.

I've been playing around, and the string.IndexOf does almost what I'm looking for, and I've written some code - but it's not working and I've been unable to figure out exactly what is wrong:

List<int> inst = new List<int>();
int index = 0;
while (index < source.LastIndexOf("extract\"(me,i-have lots. of]punctuation", 0) + 39)
{
    int src = source.IndexOf("extract\"(me,i-have lots. of]punctuation", index);
    inst.Add(src);
    index = src + 40;
}

• inst = The list
• source = The large string

Any better ideas?

---

Here's an example extension method for it:

public static List<int> AllIndexesOf(this string str, string value) {
    if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(value))
        throw new ArgumentException("the string to find may not be empty", "value");
    List<int> indexes = new List<int>();
    for (int index = 0;; index += value.Length) {
        index = str.IndexOf(value, index);
        if (index == -1)
            return indexes;
        indexes.Add(index);
    }
}

If you put this into a static class and import the namespace with using, it appears as a method on any string, and you can just do:

List<int> indexes = "fooStringfooBar".AllIndexesOf("foo");

For more information on extension methods, http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb383977.aspx

Also the same using an iterator:

public static IEnumerable<int> AllIndexesOf(this string str, string value) {
    if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(value))
        throw new ArgumentException("the string to find may not be empty", "value");
    for (int index = 0;; index += value.Length) {
        index = str.IndexOf(value, index);
        if (index == -1)
            break;
        yield return index;
    }
}

---

Why don't you use the built in RegEx class:

public static IEnumerable<int> GetAllIndexes(this string source, string matchString)
{
   matchString = Regex.Escape(matchString);
   foreach (Match match in Regex.Matches(source, matchString))
   {
      yield return match.Index;
   }
}

If you do need to reuse the expression then compile it and cache it somewhere. Change the matchString param to a Regex matchExpression in another overload for the reuse case.

---

using LINQ

public static IEnumerable<int> IndexOfAll(this string sourceString, string subString)
{
    return Regex.Matches(sourceString, subString).Cast<Match>().Select(m => m.Index);
}

---

Polished version + case ignoring support:

public static int[] AllIndexesOf(string str, string substr, bool ignoreCase = false)
{
    if (string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(str) ||
        string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(substr))
    {
        throw new ArgumentException("String or substring is not specified.");
    }

    var indexes = new List<int>();
    int index = 0;

    while ((index = str.IndexOf(substr, index, ignoreCase ? StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase : StringComparison.Ordinal)) != -1)
    {
        indexes.Add(index++);
    }

    return indexes.ToArray();
}

---

It could be done in efficient time complexity using KMP algorithm in O(N + M) where N is the length of text and M is the length of the pattern.

This is the implementation and usage:

static class StringExtensions
{
    public static IEnumerable<int> AllIndicesOf(this string text, string pattern)
    {
        if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(pattern))
        {
            throw new ArgumentNullException(nameof(pattern));
        }
        return Kmp(text, pattern);
    }

    private static IEnumerable<int> Kmp(string text, string pattern)
    {
        int M = pattern.Length;
        int N = text.Length;

        int[] lps = LongestPrefixSuffix(pattern);
        int i = 0, j = 0; 

        while (i < N)
        {
            if (pattern[j] == text[i])
            {
                j++;
                i++;
            }
            if (j == M)
            {
                yield return i - j;
                j = lps[j - 1];
            }

            else if (i < N && pattern[j] != text[i])
            {
                if (j != 0)
                {
                    j = lps[j - 1];
                }
                else
                {
                    i++;
                }
            }
        }
    }

    private static int[] LongestPrefixSuffix(string pattern)
    {
        int[] lps = new int[pattern.Length];
        int length = 0;
        int i = 1;

        while (i < pattern.Length)
        {
            if (pattern[i] == pattern[length])
            {
                length++;
                lps[i] = length;
                i++;
            }
            else
            {
                if (length != 0)
                {
                    length = lps[length - 1];
                }
                else
                {
                    lps[i] = length;
                    i++;
                }
            }
        }
        return lps;
    }

and this is an example of how to use it:

static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        string text = "this is a test";
        string pattern = "is";
        foreach (var index in text.AllIndicesOf(pattern))
        {
            Console.WriteLine(index); // 2 5
        }
    }

---

Without Regex, using string comparison type:

string search = "123aa456AA789bb9991AACAA";
string pattern = "AA";
Enumerable.Range(0, search.Length)
   .Select(index => { return new { Index = index, Length = (index + pattern.Length) > search.Length ? search.Length - index : pattern.Length }; })
   .Where(searchbit => searchbit.Length == pattern.Length && pattern.Equals(search.Substring(searchbit.Index, searchbit.Length),StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase))
   .Select(searchbit => searchbit.Index)

This returns {3,8,19,22}. Empty pattern would match all positions.

For multiple patterns:

string search = "123aa456AA789bb9991AACAA";
string[] patterns = new string[] { "aa", "99" };
patterns.SelectMany(pattern => Enumerable.Range(0, search.Length)
   .Select(index => { return new { Index = index, Length = (index + pattern.Length) > search.Length ? search.Length - index : pattern.Length }; })
   .Where(searchbit => searchbit.Length == pattern.Length && pattern.Equals(search.Substring(searchbit.Index, searchbit.Length), StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase))
   .Select(searchbit => searchbit.Index))

This returns {3, 8, 19, 22, 15, 16}

---

I noticed that at least two proposed solutions don't handle overlapping search hits. I didn't check the one marked with the green checkmark. Here is one that handles overlapping search hits:

    public static List<int> GetPositions(this string source, string searchString)
    {
        List<int> ret = new List<int>();
        int len = searchString.Length;
        int start = -1;
        while (true)
        {
            start = source.IndexOf(searchString, start +1);
            if (start == -1)
            {
                break;
            }
            else
            {
                ret.Add(start);
            }
        }
        return ret;
    }

---

public List<int> GetPositions(string source, string searchString)
{
    List<int> ret = new List<int>();
    int len = searchString.Length;
    int start = -len;
    while (true)
    {
        start = source.IndexOf(searchString, start + len);
        if (start == -1)
        {
            break;
        }
        else
        {
            ret.Add(start);
        }
    }
    return ret;
}

Call it like this:

List<int> list = GetPositions("bob is a chowder head bob bob sldfjl", "bob");
// list will contain 0, 22, 26

---

Hi nice answer by @Matti Virkkunen

public static List<int> AllIndexesOf(this string str, string value) {
    if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(value))
        throw new ArgumentException("the string to find may not be empty", "value");
    List<int> indexes = new List<int>();
    for (int index = 0;; index += value.Length) {
        index = str.IndexOf(value, index);
        if (index == -1)
            return indexes;
        indexes.Add(index);
        index--;
    }
}

But this covers tests cases like AOOAOOA where substring

are AOOA and AOOA

Output 0 and 3

---

@csam is correct in theory, although his code will not complie and can be refractored to

public static IEnumerable<int> IndexOfAll(this string sourceString, string matchString)
{
    matchString = Regex.Escape(matchString);
    return from Match match in Regex.Matches(sourceString, matchString) select match.Index;
}

---

public static Dictionary<string, IEnumerable<int>> GetWordsPositions(this string input, string[] Susbtrings)
{
    Dictionary<string, IEnumerable<int>> WordsPositions = new Dictionary<string, IEnumerable<int>>();
    IEnumerable<int> IndexOfAll = null;
    foreach (string st in Susbtrings)
    {
        IndexOfAll = Regex.Matches(input, st).Cast<Match>().Select(m => m.Index);
        WordsPositions.Add(st, IndexOfAll);

    }
    return WordsPositions;
}

---

Based on the code I've used for finding multiple instances of a string within a larger string, your code would look like:

List<int> inst = new List<int>();
int index = 0;
while (index >=0)
{
    index = source.IndexOf("extract\"(me,i-have lots. of]punctuation", index);
    inst.Add(index);
    index++;
}

---

I found this example and incorporated it into a function:

    public static int solution1(int A, int B)
    {
        // Check if A and B are in [0...999,999,999]
        if ( (A >= 0 && A <= 999999999) && (B >= 0 && B <= 999999999))
        {
            if (A == 0 && B == 0)
            {
                return 0;
            }
            // Make sure A < B
            if (A < B)
            {                    
                // Convert A and B to strings
                string a = A.ToString();
                string b = B.ToString();
                int index = 0;

                // See if A is a substring of B
                if (b.Contains(a))
                {
                    // Find index where A is
                    if (b.IndexOf(a) != -1)
                    {                            
                        while ((index = b.IndexOf(a, index)) != -1)
                        {
                            Console.WriteLine(A + " found at position " + index);
                            index++;
                        }
                        Console.ReadLine();
                        return b.IndexOf(a);
                    }
                    else
                        return -1;
                }
                else
                {
                    Console.WriteLine(A + " is not in " + B + ".");
                    Console.ReadLine();

                    return -1;
                }
            }
            else
            {
                Console.WriteLine(A + " must be less than " + B + ".");
               // Console.ReadLine();

                return -1;
            }                
        }
        else
        {
            Console.WriteLine("A or B is out of range.");
            //Console.ReadLine();

            return -1;
        }
    }

    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        int A = 53, B = 1953786;
        int C = 78, D = 195378678;
        int E = 57, F = 153786;

        solution1(A, B);
        solution1(C, D);
        solution1(E, F);

        Console.WriteLine();
    }

Returns:

53 found at position 2

78 found at position 4
78 found at position 7

57 is not in 153786

---

How is this alternative implementation?

 public static class MyExtensions
    {
        public static int HowMany(this string str, char needle)
        {
            int counter = 0;
            int nextIndex = 0;
            for (; nextIndex != -1; )
            {
                nextIndex = str.IndexOf(needle, nextIndex);
                if (nextIndex != -1)
                {
                    counter++;
                    //step over to the next char
                    nextIndex++;
                }
            }
            return counter;
        }
    }

---

you can use linq to select and enumerate all elements, then find by any string:

I've created a class:

class Pontos 
{
    //index on string
    public int Pos { get; set; }
    //caractere 
    public string Caractere { get; set; }           
}

And use like this:

int count = 0;

var pontos = texto.Select(y => new Pontos { Pos = count++, Caractere = y.ToString() }).Where(x=>x.Caractere == ".").ToList();

then: input string:

output list:

PS: SeForNumero is another field of my class, I need this for my own purposes, but is not necessary to this use.