Question

Java 1.3 JSP replace string w/reg exp.

Asked by: galaxy573

I need to come up with a good way to search through a string and replaceAll certain characters with another string.

If the string contains either of the following: & ' "
I need to replace all & with "and" and replace all single/double quote with "quote".

In my code below, how do I modify it so it searches for either of the 3 characters, without looping 3 times, one for each char.

String source = "mel & laura & cindy's car";
String input = "";
String pattern = "&";
 
if (source!=null)
{
        final int len = pattern.length();
        StringBuffer sb = new StringBuffer();
        int found = -1;
        int start = 0;
 
        while( (found = source.indexOf(pattern, start) ) != -1) {
            sb.append(source.substring(start, found));
            sb.append(replace);
            start = found + len;
        }
 
        sb.append(source.substring(start));
 
        input =  sb.toString();
}

                                  
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Asked On
2009-04-06 at 14:28:46ID24299940
Tags

jsp java

Topics

Java Server Pages (JSP)

,

Java Programming Language

Participating Experts
1
Points
500
Comments
5

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Answers

 

by: objectsPosted on 2009-04-06 at 15:19:00ID: 24082227

easier to use replaceAll(), why not use that

 

by: galaxy573Posted on 2009-04-06 at 15:24:42ID: 24082286

Java 1.3 does not have replaceAll() unfortunately.

 

by: objectsPosted on 2009-04-06 at 15:28:27ID: 24082323

sorry didn't notice you were using 1.3.

why is looping a problem? You're already looping (for each instance of the string), so looping for all possibles strings seems ok. In fact it would seem the cleanest

for (int=0; i<patterns.length; i++) {
        String pattern = patterns[i];
        int found = -1;
        int start = 0;
 
        while( (found = source.indexOf(pattern, start) ) != -1) {
            sb.append(source.substring(start, found));
            sb.append(replace);
            start = found + len;
        }
 
        sb.append(source.substring(start));
}

 

by: galaxy573Posted on 2009-04-06 at 15:59:48ID: 24082606

I'm getting the syntax error:

array required but java.lang.String found

for this line:

String pattern = patterns[i];

 

by: objectsPosted on 2009-04-06 at 16:02:23ID: 24082618

patterns should be an array of strings

String[] patterns = new String[] {"&", "\""};

you'll also need an array of replacements

String[] replaces = new String[] {"and", "quote"};

which you will use :

            sb.append(replaces[i]);

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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