Check if a string contains a value within a generic list and replace it

Question

I have a string with a message containing some fields I want to swap out to actual values

var message = "Hi [CustomerName]. Its [TODAY], nice to see you were born on the [DOB]!";
var mappingCodes = new List<string> {"[CUSTOMER_NAME]","[DOB]",[TODAY]};
var customEmails = new Dictionary<string, string>();
var today = DateTime.Now;
var customers = new List<Customer>()
{
    new Customer()
        {
            FirstName = "Jo",
            LastName = "Bloggs",
            Email = "[email protected]",
            DOB = "10/12/1960"
        }
};
foreach (var customer in customers)
{
    var emailMessage = "";
    customEmails.Add(customer.Email,emailMessage);
}

What I'm trying to do is loop through each of the customers and take the message replacing any of the mappingCodes with actual codes.
e.g. [Today] Would be the today and CustomerName would be Customer.FirstName + Customer.LastName

There could be 1000's of customers so I need something robust. I'm just not sure how to first check the string contains any of the mappingCodes and then replace them with the desired values.

Any advice?

Answer 1

You could try something like this. String.Format is rather efficient. It also would allow you to format Date.Today, if you want.

var customers = new List<Customer>()
{
    new Customer()
    {
        FirstName = "Jo",
        LastName = "Bloggs",
        Email = "[email protected]",
        DOB = "10/12/1960"
    }
};
foreach (var customer in customers)
{
    var emailMessage = String.Format("Hi {0}. Its {1}, nice to see you were born on the {2}!", customer.FirstName, DateTime.Today, customer.DOB);
    customEmails.Add(customer.Email,emailMessage);
}