How to remove leading zeros using C#

Viewed 189851

How to remove leading zeros in strings using C#?

For example in the following numbers, I would like to remove all the leading zeros.

0001234
0000001234
00001234
9 Answers
Regex rx = new Regex(@"^0+(\d+)$");
rx.Replace("0001234", @"$1"); // => "1234"
rx.Replace("0001234000", @"$1"); // => "1234000"
rx.Replace("000", @"$1"); // => "0" (TrimStart will convert this to "")

// usage
var outString = rx.Replace(inputString, @"$1");

I just crafted this as I needed a good, simple way.

If it gets to the final digit, and if it is a zero, it will stay.

You could also use a foreach loop instead for super long strings.

I just replace each leading oldChar with the newChar.


This is great for a problem I just solved, after formatting an int into a string.

    /* Like this: */
    int counterMax = 1000;
    int counter = ...;
    string counterString = counter.ToString($"D{counterMax.ToString().Length}");
    counterString = RemoveLeadingChars('0', ' ', counterString);
    string fullCounter = $"({counterString}/{counterMax})";
    // = (   1/1000) ... ( 430/1000) ... (1000/1000)

    static string RemoveLeadingChars(char oldChar, char newChar, char[] chars)
    {
        string result = "";
        bool stop = false;
        for (int i = 0; i < chars.Length; i++)
        {
            if (i == (chars.Length - 1)) stop = true;
            if (!stop && chars[i] == oldChar) chars[i] = newChar;
            else stop = true;
            result += chars[i];
        }
        return result;
    }

    static string RemoveLeadingChars(char oldChar, char newChar, string text)
    {
        return RemoveLeadingChars(oldChar, newChar, text.ToCharArray());
    }

I always tend to make my functions suitable for my own library, so there are options.

Related