Java replaceAll with parenthesis [duplicate]

Question

In the code below I'm trying to replace in text occurrences of fromString withtoString, but no replacement takes place. How to set the parenthesis in the regex to make this work?

public static void main(String[] args) {

    String fromString = "aaa(bbb)";
    String toString = "X";
    String text = "aaa(bbb) aaa(bbb)";
    String resultString = text.replaceAll(fromString, toString);
    System.out.println(resultString);

}

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 10:24:06Z

4

replaceAll uses regex as its first argument. Parenthesis () are used for capturing groups so need to be escaped

String fromString = "aaa\\(bbb\\)";

Since you can't modify the input String you can use Pattern.quote

String resultString = text.replaceAll(Pattern.quote(fromString), toString);

or simply String.replace could be used which doesnt use regex arguments

String resultString = text.replace(fromString, toString);

edited May 23, 2017 at 10:24

CommunityBot

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answered Apr 28, 2015 at 22:26

Reimeus

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3 Comments

Wiktor Stribiżew Over a year ago

Agree: tutorialspoint.com/…

ps0604 Over a year ago

my issue is that I read fromString from a database and the parenthesis are already embedded in the field, how to escape the parenthesis?

Reimeus Over a year ago

You could use Pattern.quote but the simplest approach seems to be to use String.replace

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