Checking the end of a string in Java multiple times?

Question

So in Java, I know that str.endsWith(suffix) tests if str ends with something. Let's say I have a text with the line "You are old" in it. How would I take the "old" and set it as a variable so I can print it out in the console?

I know I could do:

if(str.endsWith("old")){ 
   String age = "old";
}

But then I'm going to have more options, so then I'd have to do:

if(str.endsWith("option1")){ 
   String age = "option1";
}

if(str.endsWith("option2")){ 
   String age = "option2";
}

...

Is there a more efficient and less verbose way to check the end of strings over writing many, possibly hundreds, of if statements

Format:
    setting: option
    setting2: option2
    setting3: option3 ...

Regardless of what "option" is, I want to set it to a variable.

Show some sample input and output, and the rule for determining how much of the "end of string" you want to extract. — Jim Garrison, Aug 08 '11 at 17:21
Show some examples. Is it always the string "old"? Is it the stuff after the `:` colon character? What are the rules? — Jim Garrison, Aug 08 '11 at 17:24
If you're searching for "old", then what are you extracting? "old" is "old". If you want stuff *around* "old", that's a different question, but not one you've currently asked. For example, if you have strings like "My age is [someString]", and you have different possibilities for [someString], then you could use a regular expression to find that. What you do with the strings you find will still require an if/switch case, but at least the parsing will be in one statement. — dlev, Aug 08 '11 at 17:27

yoozer8 · Accepted Answer · 2011-08-08T19:44:09.327

2

If you are working with sentences and you want to get the word, do

String word = str.substring(str.lastIndexOf(" "));

You may need a +1 after the lastIndexOf() to leave the space out. Is that what you are looking for?

edited Aug 08 '11 at 19:44

answered Aug 08 '11 at 17:24

yoozer8

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Thanks. This is what I wanted. I'm just bad at explaining things. – Aug 08 '11 at 17:33

score 1 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:04

1

Open your file and read the line with the readLine() method. Then to get the last word of the string you can do as it is suggested here

edited May 23 '17 at 12:04

Community

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answered Aug 08 '11 at 17:25

talnicolas

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score 0 · Answer 3 · edited Jul 13 '12 at 12:46

0

You could use this Java code to solve your problem:

String suffix = "old";

if(str.endsWith(suffix)) {
    System.out.println(suffix);
}

edited Jul 13 '12 at 12:46

octopusgrabbus

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answered Aug 08 '11 at 17:20

tskuzzy

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score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Aug 08 '11 at 17:21

0

You mean like:

String phrase = "old";
if(str.endsWith(old)){

answered Aug 08 '11 at 17:21

Mike Thomsen

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score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Aug 08 '11 at 17:33

Is this what you're looking for?

List<String> suffixes = new ArrayList<String>();
suffixes.add("old");
suffixes.add("young");

for(String s: suffixes)
{
    if (str.endsWith(s))
    {
        String age = s;

        // .... more of your code here...
    }
}

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Aug 08 '11 at 17:34

If you're worried about repeating very similar code, the answer is always (99%) to create a function,

So in your case, you could do the following:

public void myNewFunction(String this, String that){
    if(this.endsWith(that)){ 
    String this = that;

    }
}

...

String str = "age: old";
myNewFunction(str, "old"); //Will change str
myNewFunction(str, "new"); //Will NOT change str

And if that is too much, you can create a class which will do all of this for you. Inside the class, you can keep track of a list of keywords. Then, create a method which will compare a given word with each keyword. That way, you can call the same function on a number of strings, with no additional parameters.

Checking the end of a string in Java multiple times?

6 Answers6