Java replaceAll and regex

Question

I'm working on Android and I want to replace all ocurrences of a certain {character} in a String with another String. For example, if the character we're talking about is 'a'and the replacement is "12" then:

Input : There are {a} months in a year.
Output : There are 12 months in a year.

I don't know how to deal with the replaceAll method and regexes ...

Thank you!

Did you try it? Did you search for examples of replaceAll usage? — Mikita Belahlazau
– Mikita Belahlazau, Commented Dec 4, 2012 at 8:18

hsz · Accepted Answer · 2012-12-04 08:17:59Z

4

At this purpose you can use String.format

int aInt = 12;
String.format("There are {%d} months in a year",  aInt );

edited Dec 4, 2012 at 8:17

hsz

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answered Dec 4, 2012 at 8:17

Blackbelt

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Comments

vishal_aim · Accepted Answer · 2012-12-04 08:22:19Z

1

you can use string.replace("{a}", "12") it replaces all occurrences of {a} by 12 in a string and doesnt take regular expression. If you need to search patterns then use replaceAll

answered Dec 4, 2012 at 8:22

vishal_aim

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Comments

Mikita Belahlazau · Accepted Answer · 2012-12-04 08:31:10Z

1

As you don't need use regex here, vishal_aim's answer is better for this situation.

The first attempt with replaceAll would be

String str = "There are {a} months in a year.";
str.replaceAll("{a}", "12");

but it doesn't work because replaceAll takes a regex and {} are special characters in regex so you need to escape them:

str.replaceAll("\\{a\\}", "12");

edited Dec 4, 2012 at 8:31

answered Dec 4, 2012 at 8:22

Mikita Belahlazau

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5 Comments

sbyd Over a year ago

Thanks that is what I was Looking for .. I actually tried it this way but I thought escaping would be with one slash only, and it did not compile!!

Mikita Belahlazau Over a year ago

Next time please add it to a question. It will be obvious what you tried.

vishal_aim Over a year ago

but why do you need to use replaceAll instead of replace?

Mikita Belahlazau Over a year ago

@vishal_aim yes, using replace makes more sense. Thank you.

sbyd Over a year ago

it seems to me that replace only works for one char and I need to replace a String "{a}" ...

stinepike · Accepted Answer · 2013-03-15 15:46:52Z

0

String str = "There are {a} months in a year.";

str.replaceAll(Pattern.quote("{a}"), "12");

EDIT:

java.util.regex.Pattern.quote(String) methods returns a literal pattern String for the specified String.

edited Mar 15, 2013 at 15:46

answered Dec 4, 2012 at 9:11

stinepike

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