Find and Delete a Sub-String in Java

Question

I'm trying to find a Java sub-string and then delete it without deleting the rest of the string.

I am taking XML as input and would like to delete a deprecated tag, so for instance:

public class whatever {
    public static void main(String[] args) {

    String uploadedXML = "<someStuff>Bats!</someStuff> <name></name>";
    CharSequence deleteRaise = "<name>";

    // If an Addenda exists we continue with the process    
    if (xml_in.contains(deleteRaise)){
        // delete
    } else {
        // Carry on
    }
}

In there I would like to delete the <name> and </name> tags if they are included in the string while leaving <someStuff> and </someStuff>.

I already parsed the XML to a String so there's no problem there. I need to know how to find the specific strings and delete them.

Submit it as an answer please, that was pretty much all I needed. So I'd like to give the valid answer. — Erick
– Erick, Commented May 7, 2014 at 0:52
What do you mean, "parsed XML to a String"? Also, any reason you don't use an XML parser for XML manipulation, such as Xerces? Manipulating XML by regexp is... dangerous. — Amadan
– Amadan, Commented May 7, 2014 at 0:53
Filtering of the XML will be more efficient if it is done prior to converting the XML to a string. With XSLT it is possible to filter out all the <name> tags and make other alternations as needed. — Jason Aller
– Jason Aller, Commented May 7, 2014 at 0:57

matt · Accepted Answer · 2014-05-07 03:38:24Z

3

You can use replaceAll(regex, str) to do this. If you're not familiar with regex, the ? just means there can be 0 or 1 occurrences of / in the string, so it covers <name> and </name>

String uploadedXML = "<someStuff>Bats!</someStuff> <name></name>";
String filter = "</?name>";
uploadedXML = uploadedXML.replaceAll(filter, "");

System.out.println(uploadedXML);

 <someStuff>Bats!</someStuff>

edited May 7, 2014 at 3:38

answered May 7, 2014 at 0:51

matt

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TheTechWolf · Accepted Answer · 2014-05-07 01:02:53Z

1

String uploadedXML = "<someStuff>Bats!</someStuff> <name></name>";
String deleteRaise = "<name>";
String closeName = "</name>"
// If an Addenda exists we continue with the process    
if (xml_in.contains(deleteRaise)){
    uploadedXML.replace(uploadedXML.substring(uploadedXML.indexOf(deleteRaise),uploadedXML.indexOf(closeName)+1),"");
} else {
    // Carry on
}enter code here

answered May 7, 2014 at 1:02

TheTechWolf

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