Formatting output file

[JosAH]

If I have a line with three field, each field may separate by a number of whitespace. some coma may be between one field. For example, the field name:company, which may be like this: companyname, Inc. So it I see something like this, I will put double quote arount it. So it would be "companynam e, Inc". And each field of the input file is separated at least three whitespace. Here is the example:
lastname firstname company name
foo newbie , sir name, Inc

Anyway, I use the regular expression for replaceAll. But it doesn't insert the coma nor replace the whitespace.

Example:
field.toString( ).replaceAll("[\t"], ",");

Thanks for your help.

For the last little problem, use:

[code=java]
field= field.toString( ).replaceAll("[\t"], ",");
[/code]

If a field can contain a comma by itself your rules become a bit more complicated.
You have to use several passes:

1) replace ", +" by something unique (say XXX) and no white spaces in it;
2) replace "[ \t]{3,} by ", ", i.e. at least three spaces or tabs by a comma and a space;
3) if you find [^ ]XXX[^ ], replace it by the same with "s around it.
4) replace XXX back by a ", "

maybe you should use one of the freely available CSV processing packages.

kind regards,

Jos

[newbieBrian]

For the last little problem, use:

[code=java]
field= field.toString( ).replaceAll("[\t"], ",");
[/code]

If a field can contain a comma by itself your rules become a bit more complicated.
You have to use several passes:

1) replace ", +" by something unique (say XXX) and no white spaces in it;
2) replace "[ \t]{3,} by ", ", i.e. at least three spaces or tabs by a comma and a space;
3) if you find [^ ]XXX[^ ], replace it by the same with "s around it.
4) replace XXX back by a ", "

maybe you should use one of the freely available CSV processing packages.

kind regards,

Jos

Jos,

Code: ( java )

1.
field= field.toString( ).replaceAll("[\t"], ",");

I got an error message: field is StringBuider type while field.toString is String type. If I use field.toString( )= field.toString( ).replaceAll("[\t"], ",");
I got this error:
required: variable
found : value
field.toString( ) = field.toString( ).replaceAll("[\t]+",",");

I will try to figure it out while waiting for your answer.

Brian
^

[JosAH]

Jos,

Code: ( java )

1.
field= field.toString( ).replaceAll("[\t"], ",");

I got an error message: field is StringBuider type while field.toString is String type. If I use field.toString( )= field.toString( ).replaceAll("[\t"], ",");
I got this error:
required: variable
found : value
field.toString( ) = field.toString( ).replaceAll("[\t]+",",");

I will try to figure it out while waiting for your answer.

Brian
^

My bad; I assumed that 'field' was a String type variable. Use something like this instead:

[code=java]
String result= field.toString( ).replaceAll("[\t"], ",");
[/code]

kind regards,

Jos

[newbieBrian]

My bad; I assumed that 'field' was a String type variable. Use something like this instead:

[code=java]
String result= field.toString( ).replaceAll("[\t"], ",");
[/code]

kind regards,

Jos

I didn't get the comma either. I will try some thing like:

char c = inputLine.charA t(i);
if (!Character.isW hitespace(c))
{
field.append(c) ;
}
and append the coma when it reaches the whitespace.

Thanks for your help.

Brian