Java RegEx to replace a string where the start and end parts match a specific pattern

Question

Hi, I need to write a regular expression in java that will find all instances:

wsp:rsidP="005816D6" wsp:rsidR="005816D6" wsp:rsidRDefault="005816D6" 

in the XML line and cross them out:

So I need to wrest all attributes starting with wsp:rsid and ending with a double quote ( " )

Thoughts on this:

• String str = xmlstring.replaceAll("wsp:rsid/w", "");
• String str = xmlstring.replaceAll("wsp:rsid[]\\"", "");

Answer 1

 xmlstring.replaceAll( "wsp:rsid\\w*?=\".*?\"", "" ); 

This works in my tests ...

 public void testReplaceAll() throws Exception { String regex = "wsp:rsid\\w*?=\".*?\""; assertEquals( "", "wsp:rsidP=\"005816D6\"".replaceAll( regex, "" ) ); assertEquals( "", "wsp:rsidR=\"005816D6\"".replaceAll( regex, "" ) ); assertEquals( "", "wsp:rsidRDefault=\"005816D6\"".replaceAll( regex, "" ) ); assertEquals( "a=\"1\" >", "a=\"1\" wsp:rsidP=\"005816D6\">".replaceAll( regex, "" ) ); assertEquals( "bob kuhar", "bob wsp:rsidP=\"005816D6\" wsp:rsidRDefault=\"005816D6\" kuhar".replaceAll( regex, "" ) ); assertEquals( " keepme=\"yes\" ", "wsp:rsidP=\"005816D6\" keepme=\"yes\" wsp:rsidR=\"005816D6\"".replaceAll( regex, "" ) ); assertEquals( "<node a=\"l\" b=\"m\" c=\"r\">", "<node a=\"l\" wsp:rsidP=\"0\" b=\"m\" wsp:rsidR=\"0\" c=\"r\">".replaceAll( regex, "" ) ); // Sadly doesn't handle the embedded \" case... // assertEquals( "", "wsp:rsidR=\"hello\\\"world\"".replaceAll( regex, "" ) ); } 

Answer 2

Try:

 xmlstring.replaceAll("\\bwsp:rsid\\w*=\"[^\"]+(\\\\\"[^\"]*)*\"", ""); 

In addition, your regular expressions are erroneous. I suggest you go and plow through http://regular-expressions.info ;)

Answer 3

Here are 2 features. cleaning will make a replacement, extraction will extract data (if you want it, not sure)

Please excuse the style, I wanted you to cut and paste functions.

 import java.util.HashMap; import java.util.regex.Matcher; import java.util.regex.Pattern; public class Answer { public static HashMap<String, String> extract(String s){ Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile("wsp:rsid(.+?)=\"(.+?)\""); Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(s); HashMap<String, String> hm = new HashMap<String, String>(); //The first group is the string between the wsp:rsid and the = //The second is the value while (matcher.find()){ hm.put(matcher.group(1), matcher.group(2)); } return hm; } public static String clean(String s){ Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile("wsp:rsid(.+?)=\"(.+?)\""); Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(s); return matcher.replaceAll(""); } public static void main(String[] args) { System.out.print(clean("sadfasdfchri wsp:rsidP=\"005816D6\" foo=\"bar\" wsp:rsidR=\"005816D6\" wsp:rsidRDefault=\"005816D6\"")); HashMap<String, String> m = extract("sadfasdfchri wsp:rsidP=\"005816D6\" foo=\"bar\" wsp:rsidR=\"005816D6\" wsp:rsidRDefault=\"005816D6\""); System.out.println(""); //ripped off of http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1066589/java-iterate-through-hashmap for (String key : m.keySet()) { System.out.println("Key: " + key + ", Value: " + m.get(key)); } } } 

returns:

 sadfasdfchri foo="bar" Key: RDefault, Value: 005816D6 Key: P, Value: 005816D6 Key: R, Value: 005816D6 

Answer 4

Unlike all the other answers, this answer really works!

 xmlstring.replaceAll("\\bwsp:rsid\\w*?=\"[^\"]*\"", ""); 

Here's a test that fails with all the other answers:

 public static void main(String[] args) { String xmlstring = "<tag wsp:rsidR=\"005816D6\" foo=\"bar\" wsp:rsidRDefault=\"005816D6\">hello</tag>"; System.out.println(xmlstring); System.out.println(xmlstring.replaceAll("\\bwsp:rsid\\w*?=\"[^\"]*\"", "")); } 

Conclusion:

 <tag wsp:rsidR="005816D6" foo="bar" wsp:rsidRDefault="005816D6">hello</tag> <tag foo="bar" >hello</tag>