Can I test if a regex is valid in C# without throwing exception

Question

I allow users to enter a regular expression to match IP addresses, for doing an IP filtration in a related system. I would like to validate if the entered regular expression

Answer 1

By using following method you can check wether your reguler expression is valid or not. here testPattern is the pattern you have to check.

public static bool VerifyRegEx(string testPattern)
{
    bool isValid = true;
    if ((testPattern != null) && (testPattern.Trim().Length > 0))
    {
        try
        {
            Regex.Match("", testPattern);
        }
        catch (ArgumentException)
        {
            // BAD PATTERN: Syntax error
            isValid = false;
        }
    }
    else
    {
        //BAD PATTERN: Pattern is null or blank
        isValid = false;
    }
    return (isValid);
}