replace substring in string when string contains [] characters

Question

I want to replace substringin string. For example:

localStringBuilder is for example "[sender] is xxxx xxxx xxx".

and when I run

localStringBuilder.toString().replaceAll("[sender]", callerName);

not working correctly. Prblem is with [] characters. How to solve this?

dantuch · Accepted Answer · 2012-08-29T19:11:32.970

4

Just use replace in place of replaceAll

replaceAll take REGEX as input, not a String, but regex. [] are important parts of regexes using to group expressions.

localStringBuilder.toString().replace("[sender]", callerName); will work exaclty as you expect, because it takes normal Strings as both parameters.

is the same. Works when is no [] characters in string – @mbrc 1 min ago

not true, I've tested it:

public static void main(String[] args) {
    String s = "asd[something]123";
    String replace = s.replace("[something]", "new1");
    System.out.println(replace);
}

output: asdnew1123

edited Aug 29 '12 at 19:11

answered Aug 29 '12 at 19:06

dantuch

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is the same. Works when is no [] characters in string – mbrc Aug 29 '12 at 19:07
@mbrc, no problem. I have to say that it's kind of sad, that among all those answers only mine suggested using `replace` here. Your problem wasn't wrong way of using regex, but JUST using it, when you probably didn't want to :) Adding `\\` wouldn't make your code better, it would just a hack to solve issue that shouldn't occur in the first place – dantuch Aug 29 '12 at 19:33

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 29 '12 at 19:07

0

replaceAll returns a new string with the replacement. It doesn't replace the characters in the original string.

String newString = localStringBuilder.toString().replaceAll("[sender]", callerName);

answered Aug 29 '12 at 19:07

DJClayworth

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score 0 · Answer 3 · edited Apr 25 '18 at 13:23

0

Use this

   localStringBuilder.toString().replaceAll("\\[sender\\]", callerName);

edited Apr 25 '18 at 13:23

Gowthaman M

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answered Aug 29 '12 at 19:07

Ransom Briggs

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what if [sender] is constant and i can not use \\? – mbrc Aug 29 '12 at 19:10
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/60160/how-to-escape-text-for-regular-expression-in-java – Ransom Briggs Aug 29 '12 at 19:13
Or your could just use http://docs.oracle.com/javase/6/docs/api/java/lang/String.html#replace(char, char) like another person mentioned – Ransom Briggs Aug 29 '12 at 19:14

score 0 · Answer 4 · edited Apr 25 '18 at 13:23

0

This works:

locaStringBuilder.toString().replaceAll("\\[sender\\]", callerName);

edited Apr 25 '18 at 13:23

Gowthaman M

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answered Aug 29 '12 at 19:08

Dan D.

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replace substring in string when string contains [] characters

4 Answers4