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Mask part of the String data which is of different lengths using Java

I am in need to mask PII data for my application. The PII data will be of String format and of variable lengths, as it may include name, address, mail id's etc.
So i need to mask these data before logging them, it should not be a full mask instead, if the length of string is less than or equal to 8 characters then mask the first half with "XXX etc.."
If the length is more than 8 then mask the first and last portion of the string such that only the mid 5 characters are visible.
I know we can do this using java sub-stringa nd iterating over the string, but want to know if there is any other simple solution to address this.
Thanks in advance

If you are using Apache Commons, you can do like
String maskChar = "*";
//number of characters to be masked
String maskString = StringUtils.repeat( maskChar, 4);
//string to be masked
String str = "FirstName";
//this will mask first 4 characters of the string
System.out.println( StringUtils.overlay(str, maskString, 0, 4) );
You can check the string length before generating maskString using if else statement.

You can use this function; change the logic of half's as per your needs:
public static String maskedVariableString(String original)
{
String maskedString = null;
if(original.length()<9)
{
int half = original.length()/2;
StringBuilder sb =new StringBuilder("");
for(int i=0;i<(original.length()-half);i++)
{
sb.append("X");
}
maskedString = original.replaceAll("\\b.*(\\d{"+half+"})", sb.toString()+"$1");
}
else
{
int maskLength = original.length()-5;
int firstMaskLength = maskLength/2;
int secondMaskLength = maskLength-firstMaskLength;
StringBuilder sb =new StringBuilder("");
for(int i=0;i<firstMaskLength;i++)
{
sb.append("X");
}
String firstMask = sb.toString();
StringBuilder sb1 =new StringBuilder("");
for(int i=0;i<secondMaskLength;i++)
{
sb1.append("X");
}
String secondMask = sb1.toString();
maskedString = original.replaceAll("\\b(\\d{"+firstMaskLength+"})(\\d{5})(\\d{"+secondMaskLength+"})", firstMask+"$2"+secondMask);
}
return maskedString;
}
Explanation:
() groups the regular expression and we can use $ to access this group($1, $2,$3).
The \b boundary helps check that we are the start of the digits (there are other ways to do this, but here this will do).
(\d{+half+}) captures (half) no of digits to Group 1. The same happens in the else part also.

Splitting a string from url pattern

I have a string in the format: /constant/variableurl . What is the best way out, such that, I can get the variableurl alone as a string.
I understand string tokenizer and regex are the two way out, but not sure how to split the last variableurl alone.
Any help is appreciated.

According to your explanation and example this is code that you could use (not perfect, generic)
toFind.substring(toFind.lastIndexOf("/") + 1)
where
String toFind = "/constant/variableurl"

There are many ways to achieve that:
String[] res = myStr.split("\\/");
String myStr = res[res.length - 1];
myStr = myStr.substring(myStr.lastIndexOf('/') + 1);
...
To add more methods, visit the docs.

If the constant portion of the string is the same for all your strings, you can get the variable portion of it using substring, and passing the length of the common part:
String a = "/constant/hello/world";
String b = "/constant/quick/brown/fox";
String c = "/constant/jumps/over/the/lazy/dog";
int len = "/constant/".length(); // That's 10
a = a.substring(len); // Becomes "hello/world"
b = a.substring(len); // Becomes "quick/brown/fox"
c = a.substring(len); // Becomes "jumps/over/the/lazy/dog"

Replace char at specific substring

first of all I want to say that I am kinda new to Java. So please be easy on me :)
I made this code, but I cannot find a way to change a character at a certain substring in my progress bar. What I want to do is this:
My progressbar is made out of 62 characters (including |). I want the 50th character to be changed into the letter B (uppercase).It should look something like this: |#########----B--|
I tried several things, but I dont know where to put the line of code to make this work. I tried using the substring and the replace code, but I can't find a way to make this work. Maybe I need to write my code in a different way to make this work? I hope someone can help me.
Thanks in advance!
int ecttotal = ectcourse1+ectcourse2+ectcourse3+ectcourse4+ectcourse5+ectcourse6+ectcourse7;
int ectmax = 60;
int ectavg = ectmax - ecttotal;
//Progressbar
int MAX_ROWS = 1;
for (int row = 1; row == MAX_ROWS; row++)
{
System.out.print("|");
for (int hash = 1; hash <= ecttotal; hash++)
System.out.print ("#");
for (int hyphen = 1; hyphen <= ectavg; hyphen++)
System.out.print ("-");
System.out.print("|");
}
System.out.println("");
System.out.println("");
}

Can you tell a little more what you want. Because what i sea it that, that you write some string into console. And is not way to change that what you already print to console.
Substring you can use only at String varibles.
If you want to change lettir with substring method in string varible try smth. like this:
String a="thi is long string try it";
if(a.length()>50){
a=a.substring(0,49)+"B"+a.substring(51);
}
Other way to change charater in string is to use string builder like this:
StringBuilder a= new StringBuilder("thi is long string try it");
a.setCharAt(50, 'B');
Sure you must first check the length of string to avoid the exceptions.
I hope that I helped you :)

Java StringBuilder has method setCharAt which can replace character at position with new character.
StringBuilder myName = new StringBuilder(<original string>);
myName.setCharAt(<position>, <character to replace>);
<position> starts with index 0
In your case:
StringBuilder myName = new StringBuilder("big longgggg string");
myName.setCharAt(50, 'B');

You can replace a certain index in a string by concatenating a new string around the intended index. For example the following code replaces the letter c with the letter X. Where 2 is the intended index to replace.
In other words, this code replaces the 3rd character in the string.
String s = "abcde";
s = s.substring(0, 2) + "X" + s.substring(3);
System.out.println(s);

First char to upper case [duplicate]

This question already has answers here:
Closed 10 years ago.
Possible Duplicate:
How to upper case every first letter of word in a string?
Most efficient way to make the first character of a String lower case?
I want to convert the first letter of a string to upper case. I am attempting to use replaceFirst() as described in JavaDocs, but I have no idea what is meant by regular expression.
Here is the code I have tried so far:
public static String cap1stChar(String userIdea)
{
String betterIdea, userIdeaUC;
char char1;
userIdeaUC = userIdea.toUpperCase();
char1 = userIdeaUC.charAt(0);
betterIdea = userIdea.replaceFirst(char1);
return betterIdea;
}//end cap1stChar
The compiler error is that the argument lists differ in lengths. I presume that is because the regex is missing, however I don't know what that is exactly.

Regular Expressions (abbreviated "regex" or "reg-ex") is a string that defines a search pattern.
What replaceFirst() does is it uses the regular expression provided in the parameters and replaces the first result from the search with whatever you pass in as the other parameter.
What you want to do is convert the string to an array using the String class' charAt() method, and then use Character.toUpperCase() to change the character to upper case (obviously). Your code would look like this:
char first = Character.toUpperCase(userIdea.charAt(0));
betterIdea = first + userIdea.substring(1);
Or, if you feel comfortable with more complex, one-lined java code:
betterIdea = Character.toUpperCase(userIdea.charAt(0)) + userIdea.substring(1);
Both of these do the same thing, which is converting the first character of userIdea to an upper case character.

Or you can do
s = Character.toUpperCase(s.charAt(0)) + s.substring(1);

public static String cap1stChar(String userIdea)
{
char[] stringArray = userIdea.toCharArray();
stringArray[0] = Character.toUpperCase(stringArray[0]);
return userIdea = new String(stringArray);
}

Comilation error is due arguments are not properly provided, replaceFirst accepts regx as initial arg. [a-z]{1} will match string of simple alpha characters of length 1.
Try this.
betterIdea = userIdea.replaceFirst("[a-z]{1}", userIdea.substring(0,1).toUpperCase())

String toCamelCase(String string) {
StringBuffer sb = new StringBuffer(string);
sb.replace(0, 1, string.substring(0, 1).toUpperCase());
return sb.toString();
}

userIdeaUC = userIdea.substring(0, 1).toUpperCase() + userIdea.length() > 1 ? userIdea.substring(1) : "";
or
userIdeaUC = userIdea.substring(0, 1).toUpperCase();
if(userIdea.length() > 1)
userIdeaUC += userIdea.substring(1);

For completeness, if you wanted to use replaceFirst, try this:
public static String cap1stChar(String userIdea)
{
String betterIdea = userIdea;
if (userIdea.length() > 0)
{
String first = userIdea.substring(0,1);
betterIdea = userIdea.replaceFirst(first, first.toUpperCase());
}
return betterIdea;
}//end cap1stChar

Remove last set of value from a comma separated string in java

I wan to remove the last set of data from string using java.
For example I have a string like A,B,C, and I want to remove ,C, and want to get the out put value like A,B . How is it possible in java? Please help.

String start = "A,B,C,";
String result = start.subString(0, start.lastIndexOf(',', start.lastIndexOf(',') - 1));

Here is a fairly "robust" reg-exp solution:
Pattern p = Pattern.compile("((\\w,?)+),\\w+,?");
for (String test : new String[] {"A,B,C", "A,B", "A,B,C,",
"ABC,DEF,GHI,JKL"}) {
Matcher m = p.matcher(test);
if (m.matches())
System.out.println(m.group(1));
}
Output:
A,B
A
A,B
ABC,DEF,GHI

Since there may be a trailing comma, something like this (using org.apache.commons.lang.StringUtils):
ArrayList<String> list = new ArrayList(Arrays.asList(myString.split()));
list.remove(list.length-1);
myString = StringUtils.join(list, ",");

You can use String#lastIndexOf to find the index of the second-to-last comma, and then String#substring to extract just the part before it. Since your sample data ends with a ",", you'll need to use the version of String#lastIndexOf that accepts a starting point and have it skip the last character (e.g., feed in the string's length minus 1).
I wasn't going to post actual code on the theory better to teach a man to fish, but as everyone else is:
String data = "A,B,C,";
String shortened = data.substring(0, data.lastIndexOf(',', data.length() - 2));

You can use regex to do this
String start = "A,B,C,";
String result = start.replaceAll(",[^,]*,$", "");
System.out.println(result);
prints
A,B
This simply erases the the 'second last comma followed by data followed by last comma'

If full String.split() is not possible, the how about just scanning the string for comma and stop after reaching 2nd, without including it in final answer?
String start = "A,B";
StringBuilder result = new StringBuilder();
int count = 0;
for(char ch:start.toCharArray()) {
if(ch == ',') {
count++;
if(count==2) {
break;
}
}
result.append(ch);
}
System.out.println("Result = "+result.toString());
Simple trick, but should be efficient.
In case you want last set of data removed, irrespective of how much you want to read, then
start.substring(0, start.lastIndexOf(',', start.lastIndexOf(',')-1))

Another way to do this is using a StringTokenizer:
String input = "A,B,C,";
StringTokenizer tokenizer = new StringTokenizer(input, ",");
String output = new String();
int tokenCount = tokenizer.countTokens();
for (int i = 0; i < tokenCount - 1; i++) {
output += tokenizer.nextToken();
if (i < tokenCount - 1) {
output += ",";
}
}

public string RemoveLastSepratorFromString(string input)
{
string result = input;
if (result.Length > 1)
{
result = input.Remove(input.Length - 1, 1);
}
return result;
}
// use from above method
string test = "1,2,3,"
string strResult = RemoveLastSepratorFromString(test);
//output --> 1,2,3