C# if string contains 'abc' within the first X characters...

Hi all, I want to check that Value1 below contains abc but only within the first X characters, how would you write the if statement to check for this?

Value1 = ddabcgghh

if (Value1.Contains(abc))
   {
       found = true;
   }

Thanks

PS It could be within the first 3,4 or 5 characters.

From stackoverflow

• if (Value1.StartsWith("abc")) { found = true; }
  

  Will : I don't think that meets the requirements.

  Jim Anderson : Isn't that the same as found = Value1.StartsWith("abc") ?

  olle : @Will - true but as in all software projects the requirements have been changed since I had a go at it. @Jim - True but I kept the style of the author of question.

• You're close... but use: if (Value1.StartsWith("abc"))

• This is what you need :

  if (Value1.StartsWith("abc"))
  {
  found = true;
  }
  

• Or if you need to set the value of found:

  found = Value1.StartsWith("abc")
  

  Edit: Given your edit, I would do something like:

  found = Value1.Substring(0, 5).Contains("abc")
  

• shorter version;

  found = Value1.StartsWith("abc");

  sorry, but I am a stickler for 'less' code.

  ---

  Given the edit of the questioner I would actually go with something that accepted an offset, this may in fact be a Great place to an Extension method that overloads StartsWith

  public static class StackOverflowExtensions
  {
      public static bool StartsWith(this String val, string findString, int count)
      {
          return val.Substring(0, count).Contains(findString);
      }
  }
  

  Will : I think he wanted to match "1abcwhatever" and "xyabcwhatever" as well.

  keithwarren7 : he changed that after most of us had written an answer

• A more explicit version is

  found = Value1.StartsWith("abc", StringComparison.Ordinal);
  

  It's best to always explicitly list the particular comparison you are doing. The String class can be somewhat inconsistent with the type of comparisons that are used.

• Use IndexOf is easier and high performance.

  int index = Value1.IndexOf("abc");
  bool found = index >= 0 && index < x;
  

• You can also use regular expressions (less readable though)

  string regex = "^.{0,7}abc";
  
  System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex reg = new System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex(regex);
  string Value1 = "sssddabcgghh";
  
  Console.WriteLine(reg.Match(Value1).Success);
  

• I would use one of the of the overloads of the IndexOf method

  bool found = Value1.IndexOf("abc", 0, 7) != -1;