How to separate a string into multiple lines based on a separator but not if it is preceded by '?'

Question

I am trying to separate a string into multiple lines based on separator ' but if there's a ? character before ' I want the data to remain in the same line.

Initial String:

HJK'ABCP?'QR2'SER'

I am able to print the lines like:

HJK'
ABCP?'
QR2'
SER'

But I want the output as:

HJK'
ABCP?'QR2'
SER'

@DipakThoke : No. Your regex isn't valid. You need to escape ? with \\. And it doesn't answer the question either. — Eric Duminil, Oct 25 '16 at 11:55
Your split doesn't work, and if it did, it would do exactly what shefali doesn't want. — Eric Duminil, Oct 25 '16 at 12:38

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 25 '16 at 11:50

You need a negative lookbehind (http://www.regular-expressions.info/lookaround.html) :

String str = "HJK'ABCP?'QR2'SER'";
System.out.println(str);
System.out.println("---------------");
System.out.println(str.replaceAll("'", "'\r\n"));
System.out.println("---------------");
System.out.println(str.replaceAll("(?<!\\?)'", "'\r\n"));

It returns :

HJK'ABCP?'QR2'SER'
---------------
HJK'
ABCP?'
QR2'
SER'

---------------
HJK'
ABCP?'QR2'
SER'

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 25 '16 at 11:51

0

Use this regex (?<!\?)' in split funtion

answered Oct 25 '16 at 11:51

Issam El-atif

2,366
2
17
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score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 25 '16 at 11:55

0

String s="HJK'ABCP?'QR2'SER'";

        System.out.println(s.replaceAll("(?<!\\?)'","\r\n"));

answered Oct 25 '16 at 11:55

Keval Pithva

600
2
5
21

You should replace with "'\r\n". ' are missing otherwise – Eric Duminil Oct 25 '16 at 11:57

How to separate a string into multiple lines based on a separator but not if it is preceded by '?'

3 Answers3

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