Replacing a char at a given index in string?
C#StringC# Problem Overview
String does not have ReplaceAt()
, and I'm tumbling a bit on how to make a decent function that does what I need. I suppose the CPU cost is high, but the string sizes are small so it's all ok
C# Solutions
Solution 1 - C#
Use a StringBuilder
:
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(theString);
sb[index] = newChar;
theString = sb.ToString();
Solution 2 - C#
The simplest approach would be something like:
public static string ReplaceAt(this string input, int index, char newChar)
{
if (input == null)
{
throw new ArgumentNullException("input");
}
char[] chars = input.ToCharArray();
chars[index] = newChar;
return new string(chars);
}
This is now an extension method so you can use:
var foo = "hello".ReplaceAt(2, 'x');
Console.WriteLine(foo); // hexlo
It would be nice to think of some way that only required a single copy of the data to be made rather than the two here, but I'm not sure of any way of doing that. It's possible that this would do it:
public static string ReplaceAt(this string input, int index, char newChar)
{
if (input == null)
{
throw new ArgumentNullException("input");
}
StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder(input);
builder[index] = newChar;
return builder.ToString();
}
... I suspect it entirely depends on which version of the framework you're using.
Solution 3 - C#
string s = "ihj";
char[] array = s.ToCharArray();
array[1] = 'p';
s = new string(array);
Solution 4 - C#
Strings are immutable objects, so you can't replace a given character in the string. What you can do is you can create a new string with the given character replaced.
But if you are to create a new string, why not use a StringBuilder:
string s = "abc";
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(s);
sb[1] = 'x';
string newS = sb.ToString();
//newS = "axc";
Solution 5 - C#
I suddenly needed to do this task and found this topic. So, this is my linq-style variant:
public static class Extensions
{
public static string ReplaceAt(this string value, int index, char newchar)
{
if (value.Length <= index)
return value;
else
return string.Concat(value.Select((c, i) => i == index ? newchar : c));
}
}
and then, for example:
string instr = "Replace$dollar";
string outstr = instr.ReplaceAt(7, ' ');
In the end I needed to utilize .Net Framework 2, so I use a StringBuilder
class variant though.
Solution 6 - C#
If your project (.csproj) allow unsafe code probably this is the faster solution:
namespace System
{
public static class StringExt
{
public static unsafe void ReplaceAt(this string source, int index, char value)
{
if (source == null)
throw new ArgumentNullException("source");
if (index < 0 || index >= source.Length)
throw new IndexOutOfRangeException("invalid index value");
fixed (char* ptr = source)
{
ptr[index] = value;
}
}
}
}
You may use it as extension method of String objects.
Solution 7 - C#
public string ReplaceChar(string sourceString, char newChar, int charIndex)
{
try
{
// if the sourceString exists
if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(sourceString))
{
// verify the lenght is in range
if (charIndex < sourceString.Length)
{
// Get the oldChar
char oldChar = sourceString[charIndex];
// Replace out the char ***WARNING - THIS CODE IS WRONG - it replaces ALL occurrences of oldChar in string!!!***
sourceString.Replace(oldChar, newChar);
}
}
}
catch (Exception error)
{
// for debugging only
string err = error.ToString();
}
// return value
return sourceString;
}