How to mask string?

Question

I have a string with value "1131200001103".

How can I display it as a string in this format "11-312-001103" using Response.Write(value)?

Thanks

Answer 1

This produces the required result

string result = Int64.Parse(s.Remove(5,2)).ToString("00-000-000000");

assuming that you want to drop 2 characters at the position of the 2 first nulls.

Answer 2

Any reason you don't want to just use Substring?

string dashed = text.Substring(0, 2) + "-" +
                text.Substring(2, 3) + "-" +
                text.Substring(7);

Or:

string dashed = string.Format("{0}-{1}-{2}", text.Substring(0, 2),
                              text.Substring(2, 3), text.Substring(7));

(I'm assuming it's deliberate that you've missed out two of the 0s? It's not clear which 0s, admittedly...)

Obviously you should validate that the string is the right length first...

Answer 3

You can try a regular expression and put this inside an extension method ToMaskedString()

public static class StringExtensions
{
    public static string ToMaskedString(this String value)
    {
        var pattern = "^(/d{2})(/d{3})(/d*)$";
        var regExp = new Regex(pattern);
        return regExp.Replace(value, "$1-$2-$3");
    }
}

Then call

respne.Write(value.ToMaskedString());

Answer 4

Maybe something like

string result = str.SubString(0, 2) + "-" + str.SubString(2, 3) + "-" + str.SubString(7);

str being the "11312000011103" string