>>>Getting rid of the Regex ? You throw away all the fun ...
>>
>>:)
>>
>
>Frank,
>
>Let me introduce you some fun
>
>(1) I would use ^ and $ - otherwise the pattern may match other things than the intented
>
>(2) The Regex class has some static methods (Match(), Matches(), IsMatch(), Replace() ) you can use without having to instantiate an object
>It caches 15 recently used patterns - see CacheSize http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.text.regularexpressions.regex.cachesize.aspx
>
>(3) You can use Groups[ ].Value
>
>

>			string filepath = @"\folder\aaa.bb";
>
>			string pat = @"^.*\\(?:.+)\\(.+)\.(.+)$";
>
>			var m = Regex.Match(filepath, pat);
>			
>
>			if (m.Success)
>			{
>				Console.WriteLine("{0}", m.Groups[1].Value); // aaa
>				Console.WriteLine("{0}", m.Groups[2].Value); // bb
>			}
>			else
>				Console.WriteLine("No match");
>
>
>			Console.ReadLine();
>

>
>(4) The Groups[] collection can be indexed by
>(a) a non-negative integer. I do not like this. You introduce another pair of parentheses somewhere and you've had it. The indexes have changed
>(b) name. This is where named groups come in
>
>

>			string filepath = @"\folder\aaa.bb";
>
>			string pat = @"^.*\\(?:.+)\\(?<FileStem>.+)\.(?<FileExtension>.+)$";
>
>			var m = Regex.Match(filepath, pat);
>			
>
>			if (m.Success)
>			{
>				Console.WriteLine("{0}", m.Groups["FileStem"].Value); // aaa
>				Console.WriteLine("{0}", m.Groups["FileExtension"].Value); // bb
>			}
>			else
>				Console.WriteLine("No match");
>
>
>			Console.ReadLine();
>

>
>(5) You can even nest named groups
>

>			string filepath = @"\folder\aaa.bb";
>
>			string pat = @"^.*\\(?:.+)\\(?<FileName>(?<FileStem>.+)\.(?<FileExtension>.+))$";
>
>			var m = Regex.Match(filepath, pat);
>			
>
>			if (m.Success)
>			{
>				Console.WriteLine("{0}", m.Groups["FileStem"].Value); // aaa
>				Console.WriteLine("{0}", m.Groups["FileExtension"].Value); // bb
>				Console.WriteLine("{0}", m.Groups["FileName"].Value); // aaa.bb
>			}
>			else
>				Console.WriteLine("No match");
>
>
>			Console.ReadLine();
>

>
>(6) Let me also introduce zero-width assertions. They can be positive/negative and lookahead/lookbehind
>An example: Validate a password, constraints are
>(a) at least one lower case char
>(b) at least one upper case char
>(c) at least one digit
>(d) at least 6 chars long
>
>
>

>			string[] test = 
>			{	"1",	//false
>				"2a",	// false
>				"H1a4t", // false
>				"helloThere",	// false
>				"hello1there",	// false
>				"hello1There"	// true
>			};
>
>			// (?=.*\d.*)   zero-width positve lookeahead.  assure at least one digit
>			// (?=.*[a-z].*)   zero-width positve lookeahead.  assure at least one lower case char
>			// (?=.*[A-Z].*)   zero-width positve lookeahead.  assure at least one upper case char
>			// .{6,}			need at least six chars
>			string pat = @"^((?=.*\d.*)(?=.*[a-z].*)(?=.*[A-Z].*).{6,})$";
>
>			foreach( var s in test )
>			{
>				var m = Regex.Match(s, pat);
>				Console.WriteLine("{0}: {1}", m.Success, s);
>			}
>
>
>			Console.ReadLine();
>

>
>(7) Finally, if you want to discover more fun and goodies - there are plenty
>
>http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/az24scfc.aspx

Thanks for all of that Gregory,

I'll try to digest it when my deadline is off my back and see how applicable it is.