CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javaarraysstring
David
David

Reputation: 10738

Replace instances of character in a string with array values

How would i go about replacing all instances of a character or string within a string with values from an array?

For example

String testString = "The ? ? was ? his ?";

String[] values = new String[]{"brown", "dog", "eating", "food"};

String needle = "?";

String result = replaceNeedlesWithValues(testString,needle,values);

//result = "The brown dog was eating his food";

method signature 

public String replaceNeedlesWithValues(String subject, String needle, String[] values){
    //code
    return result;
}

Upvotes: 2

Views: 5036

Answers (2)

C. K. Young
C. K. Young

Reputation: 222973

By using String.format:

public static String replaceNeedlesWithValues(String subject, String needle, String[] values) {
    return String.format(subject.replace("%", "%%")
                                .replace(needle, "%s"),
                         values);
}

:-)

Of course, you'll probably just want to work with String.format directly:

String.format("The %s %s was %s his %s", "brown", "dog", "eating", "food");
// => "The brown dog was eating his food"

Upvotes: 9

Edwin Dalorzo
Edwin Dalorzo

Reputation: 78579

If your string contains patterns that need to be replaced, you can use the appendReplacement method in the Matcher class.

For example:

StringBuffer sb = new StringBuffer();
String[] tokens = {"first","plane tickets","friends"};
String text = "This is my 1 opportunity to buy 2 for my 3";
Pattern p = Pattern.compile("\\d");
Matcher m = p.matcher(text);
for(int i=0; m.find(); i++) {
    m.appendReplacement(sb, tokens[i]);
}
m.appendTail(sb);

Upvotes: 1

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