How to determine if a string is a valid variable name?

user_160161 0
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I'm looking for a quick way (in C#) to determine if a string is a valid variable name. My first intuition is to whip up some regex to do it, but I'm wondering if there's a better way to do it. Like maybe some kind of a secret method hidden deep somewhere called IsThisAValidVariableName(string name), or some other slick way to do it that is not prone to errors that might arise due to lack of regex prowess.

variables regex string c#
5 Answers

In WPF this can be uses to check if a string is a valid variable name. But it does not regognize reserved strings like "public".

// works only in WPF!
public static bool CheckIfStringIsValidVarName(string stringToCheck)
{
    if (string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(stringToCheck))
        return false;

    TextBox textBox = new TextBox();

    try
    {
        // stringToCheck == ""; // !!! does NOT throw !!!
        // stringToCheck == "Name$"; // throws
        // stringToCheck == "0"; // throws
        // stringToCheck == "name with blank"; // throws
        // stringToCheck == "public"; // does NOT throw
        // stringToCheck == "ValidName";

        textBox.Name = stringToCheck;
    }
    catch (ArgumentException ex)
    {
        return false;
    }

    return true;
}
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