CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javaandroidregexstring
Anand Asir
Anand Asir

Reputation: 309

How to find and replace '[' in a String?

i am having a String "['MET', 'MISSED']". Here i want to replace "[ to [ and ]" to ]. I have used the escape sequences in my String like 

wkJsonStr.replaceAll("\"\\[","[");

and

wkJsonStr.replaceAll("\\]\"","]");

but none of the above worked. In 'watch' i edited like

wkJsonStr.replaceAll("\"[","[");

and it worked. But in my Android Studio Editor this Expression is not allowed. I am getting "Unclosed character class".

I am expecting my String after replacing to be like ['MET', 'MISSED']. I want to remove the first and last quotation alone and i would like to achieve it by replaceAll method.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 107

Answers (4)

ΦXocę 웃 Пepeúpa ツ
ΦXocę 웃 Пepeúpa ツ

Reputation: 48287

Remember that string are immutable in java...

just calling the replace method will take no effect, you need to assign the return value, otherwise will get lost.

Example:

public static void main(String[] args) {
    String wkJsonStr = "\"['MET', 'MISSED']\"";
    System.out.println(wkJsonStr);
    wkJsonStr = wkJsonStr.replaceAll("\"\\[", "[").replaceAll("\\]\"", "]");
    System.out.println(wkJsonStr);
}

this will print.

"['MET', 'MISSED']"

['MET', 'MISSED']

Upvotes: 1

Anand Asir
Anand Asir

Reputation: 309

I finally realized that the isssue is not with the Regex character. Its the Variable which i am using. when i am replacing one by one it is not forwarding the result to the next step. So i have assigned the value to a variable and now its working.

String firstResult = wkJsonStr.replaceAll("\"\\[","[");

and

String result = firstResult.replaceAll("\\]\"","]");

is working for me. Or This step will do a trick.

String result= wkJsonStr.replaceAll("\"\\[","[").replaceAll("\\]\"","]");

Upvotes: 0

Arjun saini
Arjun saini

Reputation: 4182

I agree with @Wiktor Stribiżew's comment. And you should declare your String like this:

String str = "\"['MET', 'MISSED']\""; // like this your editor will not give an error
str = str.replace("\"[","[");
str = str.replace("]\"","]");
textview.setText(str);

Upvotes: 0

dryairship
dryairship

Reputation: 6077

You can use replace instead of replaceAll, but if you really need to use replaceAll then you can do:

wkJsonStr.replaceAll("\"\\Q[\\E","[").replaceAll("\\Q]\\E\"","]")

Here,

  • \" literally denotes "
  • The part between \\Q and \\E is literally treated., i.e,
    • \\Q[\\E denotes [
    • \\Q]\\E denotes ]

Upvotes: 0

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