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.

public class RegexExample {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        simplerExample();
        yourExample();
    }
 
    static void simplerExample() {
        String input = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz";
        String result = input.replaceAll("([aeiou])", "<$1>");
        System.out.println(result);
    }
 
    static void yourExample() {
        String input = "{greece [athens] : sofia[ ";
        String result = input.replaceAll("([{}\\[\\]:])", "\\\\$1");
        System.out.println(result);
    }
}

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.