Is it possible to use the "myListBox.contains()" method to identify if a substring is contained in one of the listbox items?

I have a listbox containing a collection of strings (phrases) and would like to know if one of these phrases contains a substring. For example...

myListBox contains the f开发者_高级运维ollowing strings stored in the items collection:

• "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog"
• "One small step for man"
• "Life is like a box of chocolates"

I can successfully identify that a phrase is indeed contained in the listbox.items collection by using:

If myListBox.contains("One small step for man") Then
  'do work
End If

However, I would like to identify whether just the substring "small step" is contained in the listbox.items collection.

Is this possible? Perhaps using regular expressions?

You could also use a custom class and override Equals:

Class ListItem
    Private _text As String = String.Empty
    Public Property Text() As String
        Get
            Return _text
        End Get
        Set(ByVal value As String)
            _text = value
        End Set
    End Property

    Public Sub New(ByVal text As String)
        Me.Text = text
    End Sub

    Public Overrides Function ToString() As String
        Return Me.Text
    End Function

    Public Overrides Function Equals(ByVal obj As Object) As Boolean
        If obj Is Nothing Then
            Return False
        Else
            Return obj.ToString.IndexOf(obj.ToString, StringComparison.CurrentCultureIgnoreCase) > -1
        End If
    End Function
End Class

Example:

Me.ListBox1.Items.Add(New ListItem("The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog"))
Me.ListBox1.Items.Add(New ListItem("One small step for man"))
Me.ListBox1.Items.Add(New ListItem("Life is like a box of chocolates"))
'check with String or another instance of ListItem'
If Me.ListBox1.Items.Contains("small step") Then
   'contains substring'
End If

You will have to loop through the collection & test each string.

Just found this, which is what I think I will use...

If myListBox.FindStringExact("small step") <> ListBox.NoMatches Then
  Debug.Print("Item was found")
Else
  Debug.Print("Item was NOT found")
End If

I don't really need the index of the matching item, otherwise I would make use of the returned integer from the FindStringExact function.