java replaceAll funtion ??

[chriskaza81]

hello all

well i have a string like e.g. string1= " {greece [athens] : sofia[ "

and i expect ---> string2= " \{greece \[athens\] \: sofia\[ "

how can i do that i try the replaceAll() function .. can anybody give me a code example to do that..

[Stwange]

Normally I'd complain that you didn't use Google, but the regex documentation isn't exactly fantastic, so I'll let you off.
This code works (although I didn't do ALL the characters for you):

public class replaceAll {

    /* this code has been fully tested, and is operated by "java replaceAll your string here" from the
     * terminal/command prompt.
     * code provided courtesy of TheScripts.com
     */
    public static void main(String[] args) {
	String s = "";
	for (int i = 0; i < args.length; i++) {
	    s += args[i];
	}
	System.out.println(args.length == 0 ? "Please enter a string." : new replaceAll().replace(s));
    }

    public static String replace(String s) {
	String returned;
	/* important - strings are immutable (look it up) so can't just do s.replaceAll()
         * also, if you want a regex character (such as [, {) you have to escape it with "\\"
	 * and if you want a "\" you have to replace it with "\\\\".
	 */
	returned = s.replaceAll("\\[","\\\\[");
	returned = returned.replaceAll("\\{","\\\\{");
	returned = returned.replaceAll("\\]","\\\\]");
	returned = returned.replaceAll("\\}","\\\\}");
	/* and so on.... */
	
	return returned;
    }
}

[chriskaza81]

thank !!!! a lot >>>>>>>>>

[BigDaddyLH]

Your example cries out for a regex with a capture group. The solution can be done in one line of code. Here is your example and a simpler example that demonstrates capture to replace each vowel in a string with <the vowel>. Your example is harder to read because [, ] and \ are special characters, so we descend into escaping hell.

[CODE=Java]public class RegexExample {
public static void main(String[] args) {
simplerExample( );
yourExample();
}

static void simplerExample( ) {
String input = "abcdefghijklmn opqrstuvwxyz";
String result = input.replaceAl l("([aeiou])", "<$1>");
System.out.prin tln(result);
}

static void yourExample() {
String input = "{greece [athens] : sofia[ ";
String result = input.replaceAl l("([{}\\[\\]:])", "\\\\$1");
System.out.prin tln(result);
}
}[/CODE]

Pattern API

[Stwange]

        String result = input.replaceAll("([{}\\[\\]:])", "\\\\$1");

Nice, much nicer :) I gotta get my head around regular expressions - just took out five books on Perl so that should help :)

[BigDaddyLH]

Nice, much nicer :) I gotta get my head around regular expressions - just took out five books on Perl so that should help :)

I have to say I hate regexes -- unreadable. They lead to the old joke of calling Perl a "write once" language because no one, least of all the author, wants to read the code.