Escaping multiple different characters in a String

Question

I want to escape different characters (#, $, %, &, \, ^, _, {, }, ~) in a given Java String with a backslash (# becomes \#, $ becomes \$ and so on).

Is it possible to archieve this without calling the String#replace or String#replaceAll method multiple times on the string?

Yes, it's possible. Can't you find a strategy for doing that? Using a loop for example? — JB Nizet
– JB Nizet, Commented Mar 12, 2017 at 14:49
Why would you want to call String#replaceAll multiple times? It uses regex so you can find each of special character and replace it with \ followed by what was found. — Pshemo
– Pshemo, Commented Mar 12, 2017 at 14:53
Take a look at Harald's answer. He posted code representing what I meant. In short we can use $x notation in replacement part to represent match from group x. Since group 0 represents entire match we can write $0 to use what regex found. — Pshemo
– Pshemo, Commented Mar 12, 2017 at 15:04
@Pshemo thank you for your explanation. That was just what I was looking for. Thank you — smsnheck
– smsnheck, Commented Mar 12, 2017 at 15:15

Harald Gliebe · Accepted Answer · 2017-03-12 15:12:34Z

5

You can use the following regular expression

String escaped = s.replaceAll("[" + Pattern.quote("#$%&\\^_{}~") + "]",
    Matcher.quoteReplacement("\\")+"$0")

edited Mar 12, 2017 at 15:12

answered Mar 12, 2017 at 14:59

Harald Gliebe

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smsnheck Over a year ago

That was just what I was looking for. Thank you

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