Regex SQL syntax highlighting

[giodepa]

Hi all,
I decided to view my sql queries in a richtext box but when I loaded my query obviously I cannot syntax highlighting like SSMS.
So I decided to use regex to plit each line and when I find some words like select, I change colour to it.
This is code

...
  Dim s As Regex = New Regex("([ \,;()'*-])")
 Dim word1 As String()
word1 = s.Split(linea)
For i = 0 To word1.Length - 1
                    RichTextBox1.SelectionFont = New Font("Courier New", 10, FontStyle.Regular)
                    RichTextBox1.SelectionColor = Color.Black
                    keywords = {"select", "distinct", "case", "when", "end", "as", "else", "then", "varchar", "where", "on", "from"}
If keywords.Contains(LCase(word1(i))) Then

                        RichTextBox1.SelectionColor = Color.Blue
                        RichTextBox1.SelectionFont = New Font("Courier New", 10, FontStyle.Bold)
  End If
RichTextBox1.SelectedText = word1(i)
...

I don't know if it a best method but it works fine.

My issue in this method is to highlight sql comments like

/****** Script for SelectTopNRows command from SSMS  ******/
or
--,case when len(a.[mycity])=5 then c.mycity else a.mycity end as mycity

For first string
regex splis it as:

"/"
"*"
""
"*"
""
"*"
...

So I don't know why in my split I find "" and I don't know which is regex syntax to remove it.

How can I remove "" char?

Thank in advanced
gio

[Peter Swinkels]

At this moment I can think of no better answer than to suggest this tutorial: https://www.tutorialspoint.com/vb.ne...xpressions.htm.