How can i add two backslashes to a string?

hi :)

i'm having trouble putting two backslashes in a string, here's what I was trying to do.. I needed to replace the single backslash in a file path with two backslashes, I have written a little method to do something similar already. for example:

string filelocation = Regex.Replace(prelocation,"\"","");

will replace all double quotes in the string with nothing (in another word it takes out the double quotes) and i know this works

however, with backslashes, it doesn't apear to work...for example

Code:

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string filelocation = Regex.Replace(prelocation,"\\","\\\\");

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doesnt work. the program stop with an error that says
"Additional information: parsing "\" - Illegal \ at end of pattern."

I've also even tried

Code:

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string filelocation = Regex.Replace(prelocation,@"\",@"\\");

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which also gives the same error


any help is appreciated!! :rolleyes:

Code:

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string filelocation = Regex.Replace(prelocation,"\\","\\\\");

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Well this is where it gets hairy.

\ - in C#, this is the escape character
\\ - in C#, this is the "\" character

\ - in regular expressions, this is the escape character
\\ - in regular expressions, this is the "\" character

Now, your C# code is passed to the regular expression library, so it's actually escaped twice!

So, what you need to pass in isn't just "\\", but "\\\\". First, "\\\\" in C# is converted to two real double slashes ("\\"). Then, those two slashes are passed to the regex library, which sees them as "\".

So this should solve your problem:

Code:

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string filelocation = Regex.Replace(prelocation,"\\\\","\\\\\\\\");

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Why not just use

Code:

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string filelocation = prelocation.Replace("@\",@"\\");

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LT