Using regex to remove text between two parts of a string [duplicate]

Question

I need to match certain parts of a string using regex and am having a terrible time trying to figure it out. The string in question will always look like this:

CN=Last.First.M.1234567890, OU=OrganizationalUnit, O=Organization, C=CountryName

The resulting string will look like CN=1234567890, so I need to just get the first part of the string up to and including the , and strip out the Last.First.M. part. Can this be done?

Note: I am passing this regex into a function which I cannot touch, so I cannot use easier methods such as splitting the string or getting just the digits and adding the CN= to it.

Thanks.

What parameters does this function take exactly, and what does it return? — Tim Pietzcker
– Tim Pietzcker, Commented Feb 6, 2013 at 21:16
@TimPietzcker The function takes a String value and returns a Pattern from the java.util.regex.Pattern class. — James
– James, Commented Feb 6, 2013 at 21:19
What do you mean by that it will always look like that? I'm guessing that you mean that it will always be of the form 'CN=***, OU=***, O=***, C=***', but that the *** can be any other text? — steinar
– steinar, Commented Feb 6, 2013 at 21:21

Karl Kildén · Accepted Answer · 2013-02-06 21:26:22Z

1

Here's something I do when I'm to lazy to play around with regex.

String[] myStrings = "CN=Last.First.M.1234567890, OU=OrganizationalUnit, O=Organization, C=CountryName"
    .split(",");
// myStrings [0] now contains CN=Last.First.M.1234567890

myStrings[0] = myStrings[0].replace("Last.First.M.", "");
// now we replaced the stuff we didnt want with nothing and myStrings[0]
// is looking pretty nice. This is a lot more readable but probably
// performs worse. For even more readable code assign to variables rather then to modify myStrings[0]

answered Feb 6, 2013 at 21:26

Karl Kildén

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1 Comment

Karl Kildén Over a year ago

Sorry missed the part that you couldn't cheat. Other answers are better for you!

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 10:24:50Z

1

I believe I found the answer to what I am looking for here after doing more digging.

Regular expression to skip character in capture group

All answers here were great, just didn't apply to what I was working on. Now I will work on a different method to solve this. Thanks for all the assistance.

edited May 23, 2017 at 10:24

CommunityBot

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answered Feb 6, 2013 at 23:54

James

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Comments

Cyrille Ka · Accepted Answer · 2013-02-06 21:24:53Z

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With the regexp ([A-Z]{2})=(?:\w+\.)+(\d+), you can obtain the parts that you want.

answered Feb 6, 2013 at 21:24

Cyrille Ka

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3 Comments

Ryan Gates Over a year ago

This matches the whole CN=Last.First.M.1234567890, rather than just selecting CN=1234567890, when I tried it using regexr.com?33mcn

Cyrille Ka Over a year ago

it captures two groups: CN and 123456789. Then one should just use a variation of @aleroot solution like m.group(1) + "=" + m.group(2)

Ryan Gates Over a year ago

The OP stated that

I am passing this regex into a function which I cannot touch, so I cannot use easier methods such as splitting the string or getting just the digits and adding the CN= to it.

So I believe concatenating the groups won't work for this.

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