C# Cookbook

2.4. Finding All Occurrences of a Character Within a String

Problem

You need a way of searching a string for multiple occurrences of a specific character.

Solution

Use IndexOf in a loop to determine how many occurrences of a character exist, as well as identify their location within the string:

using System;
using System.Collections;

public static int[] FindAllOccurrences(char matchChar, string source)
{
    return (FindAllOccurrences(matchChar, source, -1, false));
}

public static int[] FindAllOccurrences(char matchChar, string source, 
                                           int maxMatches)
{
    return (FindAllOccurrences(matchChar, source, maxMatches, false));
}

public static int[] FindAllOccurrences(char matchChar, string source, 
                                           bool caseSensitivity)
{
    return (FindAllOccurrences(matchChar, source, -1, caseSensitivity));
}
        
public static int[] FindAllOccurrences(char matchChar, string source, 
                                           int maxMatches, bool caseSensitivity)
{
    ArrayList occurrences = new ArrayList( );
    int foundPos = -1;   // -1 represents not found
    int numberFound = 0;
    int startPos = 0;
    char tempMatchChar = matchChar;
    string tempSource = source;

    if (!caseSensitivity)
    {
        tempMatchChar = char.ToUpper(matchChar);
        tempSource = source.ToUpper( );
    }

    do
    {
        foundPos = tempSource.IndexOf(matchChar, startPos);        
        if (foundPos > -1)
        {
            startPos = foundPos + 1;
            numberFound++;

            if (maxMatches > -1 && numberFound > maxMatches)
            {
                break;
            }
            else
            {
                occurrences.Add(foundPos);
            }
        }
    }while (foundPos > -1);

    return ((int[])occurrences.ToArray(typeof(int)));
}

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