CODEWITHSUNDEEP
java
user7276674
user7276674

Reputation: 91

How to replace any odd number of backslashes using JAVA

I am not able to replace any odd number of backslashes in Java. Below is the code i have used. It's working fine for replacing even number of Backslashes.

Code

String x = "I am having a \ great time";
x = x.replace("\\\", " ");

Upvotes: 1

Views: 312

Answers (2)

anacron
anacron

Reputation: 6721

In Java, a backslash is an escape character in Strings. So you cannot use a backslash without an appropriate character after it.

Escape sequences are characters that have a special meaning. For example, a new line is represented using \n. You can take a look at all valid escape sequences in Java here.

To represent a backslash itself, you will need two backslashes \\.

So, in effect, you cannot use Odd number of backslashes on their own in Java.

In your example, you should use just two backslashes \\.

String x = "I am having a \\ great time";

x = x.replace("\\", " ");

So your result becomes:

"I am having a   great time"

Update:

The data from your excel sheet will get stored in memory in Java as is. So, to help you understand, if you have a sequence of \\\ characters in your excel data, it will get translated to \\\\\\ in Java automatically. So you don't have to worry about it.

For example, If your excel sheet contains something like this:

Excel Data

Then your Java String will be represented as:

Java String

By simply using the x = x.replace("\\", " ");snippet in your Java Code, it will take care of replacing all the \ characters to spaces automatically.

Hope this helps!

Upvotes: 2

André Stannek
André Stannek

Reputation: 7863

You have to escape backslashes in Java strings. This.

String x = "I am having a \ great time";

Doesn't even compile. You have to do this:

String x = "I am having a \\ great time";

It doesn't mean that you have two backslashes. It is one backslash that had to be escapded by another, since backslash is the so called "escape character" in Java. You can see this by doing

System.out.println(x);

Your final code should be this:

String x = "I am having a \\ great time";
x = x.replace("\\", " ");

Upvotes: 0

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