Finding all positions of substring in a larger string in C#

Solution 1:

Here's an example extension method for it:

public static List<int> AllIndexesOf(this string str, string value) {
    if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(value))
        throw new ArgumentException("the string to find may not be empty", "value");
    List<int> indexes = new List<int>();
    for (int index = 0;; index += value.Length) {
        index = str.IndexOf(value, index);
        if (index == -1)
            return indexes;
        indexes.Add(index);
    }
}

If you put this into a static class and import the namespace with using, it appears as a method on any string, and you can just do:

List<int> indexes = "fooStringfooBar".AllIndexesOf("foo");

For more information on extension methods, http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb383977.aspx

Also the same using an iterator:

public static IEnumerable<int> AllIndexesOf(this string str, string value) {
    if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(value))
        throw new ArgumentException("the string to find may not be empty", "value");
    for (int index = 0;; index += value.Length) {
        index = str.IndexOf(value, index);
        if (index == -1)
            break;
        yield return index;
    }
}

Solution 2:

Why don't you use the built in RegEx class:

public static IEnumerable<int> GetAllIndexes(this string source, string matchString)
{
   matchString = Regex.Escape(matchString);
   foreach (Match match in Regex.Matches(source, matchString))
   {
      yield return match.Index;
   }
}

If you do need to reuse the expression then compile it and cache it somewhere. Change the matchString param to a Regex matchExpression in another overload for the reuse case.

Solution 3:

using LINQ

public static IEnumerable<int> IndexOfAll(this string sourceString, string subString)
{
    return Regex.Matches(sourceString, subString).Cast<Match>().Select(m => m.Index);
}

Solution 4:

Polished version + case ignoring support:

public static int[] AllIndexesOf(string str, string substr, bool ignoreCase = false)
{
    if (string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(str) ||
        string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(substr))
    {
        throw new ArgumentException("String or substring is not specified.");
    }

    var indexes = new List<int>();
    int index = 0;

    while ((index = str.IndexOf(substr, index, ignoreCase ? StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase : StringComparison.Ordinal)) != -1)
    {
        indexes.Add(index++);
    }

    return indexes.ToArray();
}

Solution 5:

It could be done in efficient time complexity using KMP algorithm in O(N + M) where N is the length of text and M is the length of the pattern.

This is the implementation and usage:

static class StringExtensions
{
    public static IEnumerable<int> AllIndicesOf(this string text, string pattern)
    {
        if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(pattern))
        {
            throw new ArgumentNullException(nameof(pattern));
        }
        return Kmp(text, pattern);
    }

    private static IEnumerable<int> Kmp(string text, string pattern)
    {
        int M = pattern.Length;
        int N = text.Length;

        int[] lps = LongestPrefixSuffix(pattern);
        int i = 0, j = 0; 

        while (i < N)
        {
            if (pattern[j] == text[i])
            {
                j++;
                i++;
            }
            if (j == M)
            {
                yield return i - j;
                j = lps[j - 1];
            }

            else if (i < N && pattern[j] != text[i])
            {
                if (j != 0)
                {
                    j = lps[j - 1];
                }
                else
                {
                    i++;
                }
            }
        }
    }

    private static int[] LongestPrefixSuffix(string pattern)
    {
        int[] lps = new int[pattern.Length];
        int length = 0;
        int i = 1;

        while (i < pattern.Length)
        {
            if (pattern[i] == pattern[length])
            {
                length++;
                lps[i] = length;
                i++;
            }
            else
            {
                if (length != 0)
                {
                    length = lps[length - 1];
                }
                else
                {
                    lps[i] = length;
                    i++;
                }
            }
        }
        return lps;
    }

and this is an example of how to use it:

static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        string text = "this is a test";
        string pattern = "is";
        foreach (var index in text.AllIndicesOf(pattern))
        {
            Console.WriteLine(index); // 2 5
        }
    }