Replace characters in a String, in a specific location

Question

I have the following string;

String s = "Hellow world,how are you?\"The other day, where where you?\"";

And I want to replace the , but only the one that is inside the quotation mark \"The other day, where where you?\".

Is it possible with regex?

suppose this post is about getting the words inside quotes.

Rajith Pemabandu
– Rajith Pemabandu

2017-04-20 23:58:18 +00:00
Commented Apr 20, 2017 at 23:58 — Rajith Pemabandu
– Rajith Pemabandu, Commented Apr 20, 2017 at 23:58
what do you want to replace it with?

Ousmane D.
– Ousmane D.

2017-04-20 23:58:56 +00:00
Commented Apr 20, 2017 at 23:58 — Ousmane D.
– Ousmane D., Commented Apr 20, 2017 at 23:58
Anything, for example *

user7128116
– user7128116

2017-04-21 00:05:46 +00:00
Commented Apr 21, 2017 at 0:05 — user7128116
– user7128116, Commented Apr 21, 2017 at 0:05

infiniteRefactor · Accepted Answer · 2017-04-21 00:25:32Z

1

String s = "Hellow world,how are you?\"The other day, where where you?\"";
Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile("\"(.*?)\"");
Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(s);
while (matcher.find()) {
    s = s.substring(0, matcher.start()) + matcher.group().replace(',','X') + 
            s.substring(matcher.end(), s.length());                                  
}

If there are more then two quotes this splits the text into in quote/out of quote and only processes inside quotes. However if there are odd number of quotes (unmatched quotes), the last quote is ignored.

edited Apr 21, 2017 at 0:25

answered Apr 21, 2017 at 0:00

infiniteRefactor

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2 Comments

clstrfsck Over a year ago

This is a good answer. If you change the regexp from \"(.*)\" to \"([^\"]*)\", it will work for multiple pairs of quotes also.

infiniteRefactor Over a year ago

@msandiford I used .*? (reluctant matcher), that does the same thing.

Alfakyn1 · Accepted Answer · 2017-04-21 00:00:35Z

0

If you are sure this is always the last "," you can do that

String s = "Hellow world,how are you?\"The other day, where where you?\"";
int index = s.lastIndexOf(",");
if( index >= 0 )
    s = new StringBuilder(s).replace(index , index + 1,"X").toString();
System.out.println(s);

Hope it helps.

edited Apr 21, 2017 at 0:00

answered Apr 20, 2017 at 23:55

Alfakyn1

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2 Comments

user7128116 Over a year ago

Nop, i'm not sure if the "," is the last, thanks for the help.

Alfakyn1 Over a year ago

then look for "day," instead of only ","

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