C# - Using regex with if statements

Question

I have some code that checks a fields input against a regex, although for some reason (no matter what I put in the field, it returns flase. Is there something I have missed?

private void textBox5_Validating(object sender, CancelEventArgs e)
{
    String AllowedChars = @"^a-zA-Z0-9.$";
    if (Regex.IsMatch(textBox5.Text, AllowedChars))
    {
        MessageBox.Show("Valid");
    }
    else
    {
        MessageBox.Show("Invalid");
    }
}

Solution 1

The regex makes no sense to me. This one would (notice the square brackets used for defining an alphabet):

String AllowedChars = @"^[a-zA-Z0-9]*$";

Solution 2

What you want is to group those characters and allow 0 or more:

@"^[a-zA-Z0-9.]*$"

Otherwise, what you posted allows "a-zA-Z0-9" and one more character only.

Solution 3

Probably incorrect regex. Maybe you meant this:

String AllowedChars = @"^[a-zA-Z0-9]*$";

This would allow any number (including none) of alphanumeric chars. I have removed the period (which matches any character) because it does not make much sense in this context.

Comments

[Tadmas]

The period may have been intended to be a literal period character rather than a metacharacter (perhaps "www.example.com" is a valid input), especially considering the variable name of AllowedChars. In that case, it should be included within the square brackets.