CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javastringarraylistreplaceall
Heather T
Heather T

Reputation: 323

Removing punctuation is not working in Java with string replacement

So, what I'm trying to do is compile a single word list with no repeats out of 8 separate dictionary word lists. Some of the dictionaries have punctuation in them to separate the words. Below is what I have that pertains to the punctuation removal. I've tried several different solutions that I've found on stack overflow regarding regex expressions, as well as the one I've left in place in my code. For some reason, none of them are removing the punctuation from the source dictionaries. Can someone tell me what it is I've done wrong here and possibly how to fix it? I'm at a loss and had a coworker check it and he says this ought to be working as well.

int i = 1;
boolean checker = true;
Scanner inputWords;
PrintWriter writer = new PrintWriter(
        "/home/htarbox/Desktop/fullDictionary.txt");
String comparison, punctReplacer;

ArrayList<String> compilation = new ArrayList<String>();



while (i <9)
{
inputWords = new Scanner(new File("/home/htarbox/Desktop/"+i+".txt"));
    while(inputWords.hasNext())
    {
        punctReplacer = inputWords.next();
        punctReplacer.replaceAll("[;.:\"()!?\\t\\n]", "");
        punctReplacer.replaceAll(",", "");
        punctReplacer.replaceAll("\u201C", "");
        punctReplacer.replaceAll("\u201D", "");
        punctReplacer.replaceAll("’", "'");

        System.out.println(punctReplacer);
        compilation.add(punctReplacer);
    }
    }
inputWords.close();
}
i = 0;

Upvotes: 1

Views: 655

Answers (2)

Arash Saidi
Arash Saidi

Reputation: 2238

As strings are immutable you have to reset your variable:

punctReplacer = punctReplacer.replaceAll("[;.:\"()!?\\t\\n]", "");

(btw, immutable means that you cannot change the value once it has been set, so with String you always have to reset the variable if you want to change it)

Upvotes: 4

Brian Agnew
Brian Agnew

Reputation: 272397

The line

punctReplacer.replaceAll(",", "");

returns a new String with your replacement (which you're ignoring). It doesn't modify the existing String. As such you need:

punctReplacer = punctReplacer.replaceAll(",", "");

Strings are immutable. Once created you can't change them, and any String manipulation method will return you a new String

Upvotes: 5

Related Questions