Replacing all non numeric characters from a string using Regex

Use this simple snipet to remove all dashes and dots from document numbers, license plates and so on

Everybody who works coding something must use Regular Expressions (RegEx) at least once in a lifetime. They can be used for a lot of things but my favorite will be always matching and removing characters from a string.

One of the problems I always have developing softwares was with number formatting. While in the user interface we should allow dots and dashes as the user will never really care if he should or should not use it. In Brazil, for example, the postal code has the following format: 00000-000. Some people might put it without the dash. And that, my friend, will hurt the database.

One way to solve this is forcing the backend to keep only the numbers. Let's take a look on how to do it using Regex.Replace:

1. Add the reference
   

   using System.Text.RegularExpressions;

2. Use this line of code
   

   string onlyNumbers = Regex.Replace(str, "[^0-9]", "");
   

And that's it!