MatchCollection Class

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Represents the set of successful matches found by iteratively applying a regular expression pattern to the input string.

Inheritance Hierarchy

System. . :: . .Object
  System.Text.RegularExpressions..::..MatchCollection

Namespace:  System.Text.RegularExpressions
Assembly:  System.Text.RegularExpressions (in System.Text.RegularExpressions.dll)

Syntax

'Declaration
<SerializableAttribute> _
Public Class MatchCollection _
    Implements ICollection, IEnumerable

[SerializableAttribute]
public class MatchCollection : ICollection, 
    IEnumerable

[SerializableAttribute]
public ref class MatchCollection : ICollection, 
    IEnumerable

[<SerializableAttribute>]
type MatchCollection =  
    class
        interface ICollection
        interface IEnumerable
    end

public class MatchCollection implements ICollection, IEnumerable

The MatchCollection type exposes the following members.

Properties

	Name	Description
	Count	Gets the number of matches.
	IsReadOnly	Gets a value that indicates whether the collection is read only.
	IsSynchronized	Gets a value indicating whether access to the collection is synchronized (thread-safe).
	Item	Gets an individual member of the collection.
	SyncRoot	Gets an object that can be used to synchronize access to the collection.

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Methods

	Name	Description
	CopyTo	Copies all the elements of the collection to the given array starting at the given index.
	Equals(Object)	Determines whether the specified Object is equal to the current Object. (Inherited from Object.)
	Finalize	Allows an object to try to free resources and perform other cleanup operations before it is reclaimed by garbage collection. (Inherited from Object.)
	GetEnumerator	Provides an enumerator that iterates through the collection.
	GetHashCode	Serves as a hash function for a particular type. (Inherited from Object.)
	GetType	Gets the Type of the current instance. (Inherited from Object.)
	MemberwiseClone	Creates a shallow copy of the current Object. (Inherited from Object.)
	ToString	Returns a string that represents the current object. (Inherited from Object.)

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Remarks

The collection is immutable (read-only) and has no public constructor. The Regex..::..Matches method returns a MatchCollection object.

The collection contains zero or more System.Text.RegularExpressions..::..Match objects. If the match is successful, the collection is populated with one System.Text.RegularExpressions..::..Match object for each match found in the input string. If the match is unsuccessful, the collection contains no System.Text.RegularExpressions..::..Match objects, and its Count property equals zero.

When applying a regular expression pattern to a particular input string, the regular expression engine uses either of two techniques to build the MatchCollection object:

• Direct evaluation.

  The MatchCollection object is populated all at once, with all matches resulting from a particular call to the Regex..::..Matches method. This technique is used when the collection's Count property is accessed. It typically is the more expensive method of populating the collection and entails a greater performance hit.

• Lazy evaluation.

  The MatchCollection object is populated as needed on a match-by-match basis. It is equivalent to the regular expression engine calling the Regex..::..Match method repeatedly and adding each match to the collection. This technique is used when the collection is accessed through its GetEnumerator method, or when it is accessed using the foreach statement (in C#) or the For Each...Next statement (in Visual Basic).

To iterate through the members of the collection, you should use the collection iteration construct provided by your language (such as foreach in C# and For Each…Next in Visual Basic) instead of retrieving the enumerator that is returned by the GetEnumerator method.

Thread Safety

Any public static (Shared in Visual Basic) members of this type are thread safe. Any instance members are not guaranteed to be thread safe.

See Also

Reference

System.Text.RegularExpressions Namespace