Regex question

[LuckyKoen]

I am trying to replace one string with another one. The string that needs to be replaced can't end on a letter or number. I have the following regex at the moment :

myString.replaceAll("cloud[^a-z0-9A-Z]", "sun");

As expected, this regex will skip the word "clouds" but will replace the word "cloud#". In the 2nd case, both "cloud" and "#" will be replaced with "sun". How do I keep this # character so that the result of the regexp is sun# and not sun ?

 

[jemminger]

works for me...

String myString = "The clouds are cloudy.  Cloud#, cloud#, cloud$, cloud! and clouded.";
myString = myString.replaceAll("cloud[^a-z0-9A-Z]", "sun");
System.out.println("myString: " + myString);

results in:
myString: The clouds are cloudy. Cloud#, sun, sun, sun and clouded.

-jeff

http://www.jeffemminger.com

try { succeed(); } catch(E) { tryAgain(); } finally { rtfm(); }
i like your sleeves...they're real big

 

[LuckyKoen]

Jemm, the result I would like to get when using your String is:
myString: The clouds are cloudy. Cloud#, sun#, sun$, sun! and clouded.

Instead of :
myString: The clouds are cloudy. Cloud#, sun, sun, sun and clouded.

 

[stefanwagner]

You catch the concrete character(s), matching your expression, with, with '()'.
To distinguish the braces from braces, meant as token, you have to mask them with backslashes: '\(, \)'.
A backslash is used for masking special characters in java-source, so you have to mask the backslash with a backslash, if you mean a backslash as such: "\\(expression\\)".
If you would read the expression from a file, you would use single backslashes.

To reference the content of the expression, you use '$N', with N being the sequence-number of the captured expression (you may use multiple capturings, and counting is done by opening braces).

String myString = "The clouds are cloudy.  Cloud#, cloud#, cloud$, cloud! and clouded.";
myString = myString.replaceAll("cloud\\([^a-z0-9A-Z]\\)", "sun$1");
System.out.println("myString: " + myString);

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[jemminger]

ok - misunderstood the question. stefan's example looks right

-jeff

http://www.jeffemminger.com

try { succeed(); } catch(E) { tryAgain(); } finally { rtfm(); }
i like your sleeves...they're real big

 

[LuckyKoen]

Thanks for the help Stefan.

The double backslashes weren't necessary. The following line worked nicely :

myString = myString.replaceAll("cloud([^a-z0-9A-Z])", "sun$1");