[RESOLVED] [2005] Word Counter - Any improvments?

[dbasnett]

    Function CountWords(ByVal Text As String) As Long
        Dim re As New RegularExpressions.Regex("\b\w+\b")
        ' the following pattern means that we're looking for a word character (\w)
        ' repeated one or more times (the + suffix), and that occurs on a word
        ' boundary (leading and trailing \b sequences)
        ' the Execute method does the search and returns a MatchCollection object
        ' which in turn exposes the Count property,
        '  i.e. the result we're interested into
        CountWords = re.Matches(Text).Count
    End Function

I copied pasted changed the link kas provided.

[dbasnett]

How 'bout this

    Function CountWords(ByVal theText As String) As Int32
        Dim loopCTR, wordCTR As Int32
        Dim words() As String
        Dim valid As String = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz" 'characters that define word beginning
        Dim strip As String = ":;?/.>,<`~!@#$%^&*()-_=+[{}]|\'0123456789" & ControlChars.Quote 'strip this out
        valid &= valid.ToUpper 'upper and lower
        theText = theText.Trim 'get rid of lead/trail spaces
        For loopCTR = 0 To strip.Length - 1 'strip characters out (is strip defined correctly?)
            theText = theText.Replace(strip.Substring(loopCTR, 1), " ")
        Next
        words = theText.Trim.Split(" "c) 'split into an array
        For loopCTR = 0 To words.Length - 1
            If words(loopCTR) <> "" Then
                If valid.IndexOf(words(loopCTR).Substring(0, 1)) <> -1 Then
                    wordCTR += 1
                End If
            End If
        Next
    End Function

I just threw this together, but my gut says strip may need attention.