CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javaregexcsv
Hayder
Hayder

Reputation: 1

Regular expression for removing inner double quotes

I have a String with outer double quotes "". There are inner double quotes that I need to remove. What is a regular expression for this?

For example:

input: "Hello there "I arrive" tonight" ---> output: "Hello there I arrive tonight"
input: "Hello there "I arrive tonight"" ---> output: "Hello there I arrive tonight"
input: ""Hello" there I arrive tonight" ---> output: "Hello there I arrive tonight"

I tried the following code, but it doesn't work with my examples 2 and 3. It works for example 1.

data.replaceAll("\"(\\b[^\"]+)?\"\\b([^\"]+)\\b\"([^\"]+\\b)?\"","\"$1$2$3\"");

Background: I have a CSV file, which I need to parse. The data comes with inner quotes inside the outer quotes. For example:

"aa","bb","cc","dd "REMOVE QUOTES" "
"aaa","bbb","ccc",""REMOVE QUOTES" ddd "

I would like the Regexp to remove the inner quotes only and keep the outer ones. Output:

"aa","bb","cc","dd REMOVE QUOTES "
"aaa","bbb","ccc","REMOVE QUOTES ddd "

Upvotes: 0

Views: 2243

Answers (3)

Reimeus
Reimeus

Reputation: 159754

You could use a combination of negative look-behind and look-ahead:

data = data.replaceAll("(?<!^)\"(?!$)", "")
  • (?<!^) Negative look-behind for start of line
  • (?!$) Negative look-ahead for EOL

Upvotes: 2

Casimir et Hippolyte
Casimir et Hippolyte

Reputation: 89557

If I suppose that your strings begin with the first " and finish with the last ", you can use this for a regex way:

data.replaceAll("(?<!^)\"(?!$)", "");

Upvotes: 0

Erich
Erich

Reputation: 2773

Give this a shot. I get the inside string (ignoring the outer quotes) then remove all quotes and add the outer ones back.

String input1 = "\"Hello there \"I arrive\" tonight\"";
String output1 = "\"" + input1.substring(1, input1.length() - 1).replaceAll("\"", "") + "\"";
System.out.println(output1);

Ouput

"Hello there I arrive tonight"

Upvotes: 1

Related Questions