What is the most efficient way to detect if a string contains a number of consecutive duplicate characters in C#?
The following regular expression would detect repeating chars. You could up the number or limit this to specific characters to make it more robust.
int threshold = 3;
string stringToMatch = "thisstringrepeatsss";
string pattern = "(\\d)\\" + threshold + " + ";
Regex r = new Regex(pattern);
Match m = r.Match(stringToMatch);
while(m.Success)
{
Console.WriteLine("character passes threshold " + m.ToString());
m = m.NextMatch();
}
Here's and example of a function that searches for a sequence of consecutive chars of a specified length and also ignores white space characters:
public static bool HasConsecutiveChars(string source, int sequenceLength)
{
if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(source))
return false;
if (source.Length == 1)
return false;
int charCount = 1;
for (int i = 0; i < source.Length - 1; i++)
{
char c = source[i];
if (Char.IsWhiteSpace(c))
continue;
if (c == source[i+1])
{
charCount++;
if (charCount >= sequenceLength)
return true;
}
else
charCount = 1;
}
return false;
}
Edit fixed range bug :/