Regex.Match Method (String, String)
Updated: July 2009
Searches the specified input string for the first occurrence of the regular expression supplied in the pattern parameter.
Assembly: System (in System.dll)
Parameters
- input
- Type: System.String
The string to search for a match.
- pattern
- Type: System.String
The regular expression pattern to match.
Return Value
Type: System.Text.RegularExpressions.MatchAn object that contains information about the match.
| Exception | Condition |
|---|---|
| ArgumentException | A regular expression parsing error has occurred. |
| ArgumentNullException | input is null. -or- pattern is null. |
The static Match(String, String) method is equivalent to constructing a Regex object with the specified regular expression pattern and calling the instance Match(String) method. In this case, the regular expression engine caches the regular expression pattern.
The pattern parameter consists of various regular expression language elements that symbolically describe the string to match. For more information about regular expressions, see .NET Framework Regular Expressions and Regular Expression Language - Quick Reference.
You can determine whether the regular expression pattern has been found in the input string by checking the value of the returned Match object's Success property. If a match is successful, the returned Match object's Value property contains the substring from input that matches the regular expression pattern. If no match is found, its value is String.Empty.
This method returns the first substring in input that matches the regular expression pattern. You can retrieve subsequent matches by repeatedly calling the returned Match object's NextMatch method. You can also retrieve all matches in a single method call by calling the Regex.Matches(String, String) method.
Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP SP2, Windows XP Media Center Edition, Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, Windows XP Starter Edition, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2000 SP4, Windows Millennium Edition, Windows 98, Windows CE, Windows Mobile for Smartphone, Windows Mobile for Pocket PC, Xbox 360, Zune
The .NET Framework and .NET Compact Framework do not support all versions of every platform. For a list of the supported versions, see .NET Framework System Requirements.