Whole word search in LINQ

Question

How can I search for whole word in LINQ?

If I am searching for a word "car" in a list of strings {"carpenter","car repair","carrying","car workshop"} etc. And the result should be "car repair" & "car workshop" only . I tries the below code

  List<string> _tags = (from item in string_array
                                 where item.ToLower().Contains(search_term)
                                 select item).ToList();

But, contains always return similar words and I found this link on SO Linq Regex for whole word search which is not providing a complete answer using Regx.

So, anyone can help to write an answer in Regx or is any other options to use with Linq.

Answer 1

Try this:

var result = items.Where(i => i.Split(' ').Any(word => word.ToLower() == "car")).ToList();

If you need to take into account commas, you can use this instead:

var reg = new Regex("\\bcar\\b", RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);

var items = new [] { "carpenter", "car repair", "carrying", "car workshop", "car, repair", "car. repair", "car,repair" };
var result = items.Where(word => reg.IsMatch(word)).ToList();

Gives:

car repair 
car workshop 
car, repair 
car. repair 
car,repair

Answer 2

list.Where(item=>item.Split(' ').Contains("car"));