Peculiar issue with replaceAll method in java

Question

I have input as below:

Input: 6jVYY3Xnqt<>:"/\|?*GjznpnRQSb
testInput = testInput.replaceAll("[<>:/\\\"|?*]", "-");
output: 6jVYY3Xnqt----\---GjznpnRQSb

But if I do:

testInput = testInput.replaceAll("[<>:/\"|?*]", "-");
testInput = testInput.replace("\\", "-");
output: 6jVYY3Xnqt--------GjznpnRQSb

Is this a bug in java 7? Why is replaceAll not taking the \ character?

Robby Cornelissen · Accepted Answer · 2014-12-04 04:06:21Z

2

You need to double escape the backslash in your regular expression, once for the string literal and once for the regular expression:

testInput= testInput.replaceAll("[<>:/\\\\\"|?*]", "-");
//                                    ^^^^
//                                    Represents one backslash

edited Dec 4, 2014 at 4:06

answered Dec 4, 2014 at 3:58

Robby Cornelissen

98.6k23 gold badges154 silver badges180 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Peculiar issue with replaceAll method in java

1 Answer 1

Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

1 Answer 1

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related