Algorithm for finding strings that a specific Regex will match

Question

Given a regex pattern, I\'m trying to find a string that matches it. Similar to how Django reverses them, but in C#. Are there any pre-made C# libraries that do this?

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Answer 1

see for example Using Regex to generate Strings rather than match them

also you can take a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deterministic_finite-state_machine especially at "Accept and Generate modes" section.

as others noted you will need to create a DFA from your regular expression and then generate your strings using this DFA.

to convert your regular expression to DFA, generate NFA first (see for example http://lambda.uta.edu/cse5317/spring01/notes/node9.html) and then convert NFA to DFA.

the easiest way i see is to use a parser generator program for that. i do not think django does this.

hope this helps.