asked on

String - replace substring

How can one replace part of a string with another string?

e.g. Given a string "aaaaabbbbbbccccccdddddd", replace the "bbbbb" with "zzzzz" to make the string "aaaaazzzzzcccccddddd"

You can start with:
int i = fooStringl.indexOf ("bbbbb");

but then using replace() to replace one character at a time is inefficient.

Converting it to StringBuffer doesn't seem to help, either.
There is insert(), but that's not quite it

bbangerter

Try:

String fooString = "aaaaabbbbbcccccddddd";
String barString = "bbbbb";
String replaceString = "zzzzz";
int fooLength = fooString.length ();
int barLength = barString.length ();
int index = fooString.indexOf (barString);

if (index != -1)
{
String newString = fooString.substring (0, index) + replaceString + fooString.substring (index + barLength, fooLength);
}
else
{
// barString does not exist inside of fooString - so nothing to replace
}

If there may be more than one instance of barString within fooString and you want to replace all instances of barString, then you will need to iterate through this code until index == -1

wachi

From bbangerter 's comment. I think that code should be.

if (index != -1) {
fooString = fooString.substring (0, index) + replaceString +
fooString.substring (index + barLength, fooLength);
}

omom

ASKER

Close enough, lock if you want to.

omom

ASKER

I think bbangerter should get the points

omom

ASKER

I think bbangerter should get the points

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

bbangerter

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