Regex for string cleaning

Question

Hi there,

I have the following string to be cleaned of 1 and 2 character words unless it's the letter M or F.

EL EL EL EL M EL EL FU S FF EL EL EL E EL

I tried with the following expression but it didn't work quite well.

var output = Regex.Replace(input, @"\b\w{2}\s", "").Trim();  

I ended up with "M S E EL"

Could you help me so I can end up with only M?

Would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Answer 1

To consider letters only, try this: @"\b(\p{L}{2}|[^MF\s])\b\s*".

Answer 2

Check this pattern: @"\b(\w{2,}|[^MF\s])\b\s*".

Answer 3

Hmm I thought that it works but then realized that it completely removes the regular words as well. e.g.

Test (string)
Jacob Has A Pen,
EL EL EL EL M EL EL FU S FF EL EL EL E EL
I do not have a Pen blah blah
EL EL EL

I end up with the following:

()
,
M
{two empty lines here}

Any ideas how to ignore the other text and consider only the single letters M/F and TWO character words? Thank you again

Answer 4

For 1- and 2-character words, try another pattern: @"\b(\w{2}|[^MF\s])\b\s*".

If there are specific aspects, show details.

Answer 5

One more rule and I swear I will stop. How to omit the numbers e.g. Test (23%) to be ignore entirely.
Currently I get Test (%)
Thank you so much