Replace named group in regex with value

Question

I want to use regular expression same way as string.Format. I will explain

I have:

string pattern = "^(?<PREFIX>abc_)(?<ID>[0-9])+(?<POSTFIX>_def)$";
string input = "abc_123_def";
Regex regex = new Regex(pattern, RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);
string replacement = "456";
Console.WriteLine(regex.Replace(input, string.Format("${{PREFIX}}{0}${{POSTFIX}}", replacement)));

This works, but i must provide "input" to regex.Replace. I do not want that. I want to use pattern for matching but also for creating strings same way as with string format, replacing named group "ID" with value. Is that possible?

I'm looking for something like:

string pattern = "^(?<PREFIX>abc_)(?<ID>[0-9])+(?<POSTFIX>_def)$";
string result = ReplaceWithFormat(pattern, "ID", 999);

Result will contain "abc_999_def". How to accomplish this?

Answer 1

Yes, it is possible:

public static class RegexExtensions
{
    public static string Replace(this string input, Regex regex, string groupName, string replacement)
    {
        return regex.Replace(input, m =>
        {
            return ReplaceNamedGroup(input, groupName, replacement, m);
        });
    }

    private static string ReplaceNamedGroup(string input, string groupName, string replacement, Match m)
    {
        string capture = m.Value;
        capture = capture.Remove(m.Groups[groupName].Index - m.Index, m.Groups[groupName].Length);
        capture = capture.Insert(m.Groups[groupName].Index - m.Index, replacement);
        return capture;
    }
}

Usage:

Regex regex = new Regex("^(?<PREFIX>abc_)(?<ID>[0-9]+)(?<POSTFIX>_def)$");

string oldValue = "abc_123_def";
var result = oldValue.Replace(regex, "ID", "456");

Result is: abc_456_def