Member '<method>' cannot be accessed with an instance reference

Question

The whole error text is:

Member 'System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.Replace(string, string, string, System.Text.RegularExpressions.RegexOptions)' cannot be accessed with an instance reference; qualify it with a type name instead

Here's the code. I removed "static" like in another post here, but it's still giving me the error.

I'd appreciate the assistance of all the experts on here - thanks!.

public string cleanText(string DirtyString, string Mappath)
{
    ArrayList BadWordList = new ArrayList();
    BadWordList = BadWordBuilder(BadWordList, Mappath);

    Regex r = default(Regex);
    string element = null;
    string output = null;

    foreach (string element_loopVariable in BadWordList)
    {
        element = element_loopVariable;
        //r = New Regex("\b" & element)
        DirtyString = r.Replace(DirtyString, "\\b" + element, "*****", RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);
    }

    return DirtyString;
}

Answer 1

The problem is with the use of the method Replace not with the use of static in your declaration. You need to use the typename Regex instead of the variable r

DirtyString = Regex.Replace(DirtyString, "\\b" + element, "*****", RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);

The reason why is in C# you cannot access static methods through an instance of the type. Here Replace is static hence it must be used through the type Regex

Answer 2

Ok, so first; default(Regex) will simply return null as Regex is a reference type. So even if your code compiled, it would certainly crash with a NullReferenceException at this line as you never assign anything valid to r.

DirtyString = r.Replace(DirtyString, "\\b" + element, "*****", RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);

Next, the compiler is telling you exactly what the problem is; Replace is a static method, not an instance method, so you need to use the typename as opposed to an instance variable.

DirtyString = Regex.Replace(...);