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Allowing apostrophes in the HTML input field

I have a php code as shown below which validates the answer at Line A which user enters in a html form.
When user enters any answer with apostrophe in the html input field form, I am getting the error message Secret Answer is Invalid.
For example: On entering Hello World', I am getting the error message Secret Answer is Invalid from Line Z.
//response
$response_error = new error();
$response_error->field = SECRET_response;
if($response != "" && $service->validAnswer($answer) != 'true'){ // Line A
$response_error->inError = true;
$response_error->errorMessage = SECRET_response.ISINVALID; // Line Z
} else {
$response_error->inError = false;
}
The Java code/method belonging to the validAnswer method used at Line A above is:
public static boolean validAnswer(String answer) {
Pattern a = Pattern.compile("^(?=.*\\S)[a-zA-Z0-9éèàêâçîëïÇÉÔÂÊÎÔÛËÏÀùÙ!#%&$%*\\- ]+$"); // Line B
Matcher b = a.matcher(answer);
logger.info("validAnswer: mmatches(): " + (b.matches()) + " a: " + a);
return b.matches();
}
Problem Statement:
I am wondering what changes I need to make in the java code above so that it takes apostrophe in the html input form.
This is what I have tried in the Java code:
I have put ' in at the end of [ ] inside of it. On trying that, it doesn't seem to work.
public static boolean validAnswer(String answer) {
Pattern a = Pattern.compile("^(?=.*\\S)[a-zA-Z0-9éèàêâçîëïÇÉÔÂÊÎÔÛËÏÀùÙ!#%&$%*\\-' ]+$"); // Line A
Matcher b = a.matcher(answer);
logger.info("validAnswer: mmatches(): " + (b.matches()) + " a: " + a);
return b.matches();
}

Calling Java from PHP just to use a regex is very weird and inefficient. PHP has regex support of course, so you don't need Java for that.
Anyway, your latest code works perfectly:
import java.util.regex.*;
public class Test
{
public static boolean validAnswer(String answer)
{
Pattern a = Pattern.compile("^(?=.*\\S)[a-zA-Z0-9éèàêâçîëïÇÉÔÂÊÎÔÛËÏÀùÙ!#%&$%*\\-' ]+$");
Matcher b = a.matcher(answer);
return b.matches();
}
public static void main(String args[])
{
System.out.println(validAnswer("Hello World'"));
}
}
Output:
true
So I guess you didn't recompile your code after modifying it.

InputMismatchException while using Scanner to read from file

New to Java. I'm having a hard time understanding why my code isn't running. I'm getting a InputMismatchException when I try to run my code.
I did some testing and problems occur if there's white space in my file such as "New York." I've been trying different things such as looping with .hasNextLine() instead of .hasnext() as suggested in other threads but to no avail. Sometimes I can get it to run until the end it gives me a NoSuchElementException. If you could please put me in the right direction, that would help a lot thank you!
import java.util.*;
import java.io.*;
public class StandaloneReport {
public static void main(String[] args) {
String fileInputName;
String fileOutputName;
String firstName;
String lastName;
String houseNumber;
String street;
String city;
String state;
String zip;
String productDescription;
double productPrice;
//Scanner obj1
Scanner input = null;
input = new Scanner(System.in);
System.out.printf("What is the file name?\n");
fileInputName = input.nextLine();
//Print out the name user inputed
System.out.println("File name is: " + fileInputName);
//Read the file
FileReader filereader;
Scanner readInput = null;
try {
readInput = new Scanner(filereader = new FileReader(fileInputName));
} catch (FileNotFoundException e) {
// TODO Auto-generated catch block
e.printStackTrace();
}
while (readInput.hasNext())
{
firstName = readInput.next();
lastName = readInput.next();
houseNumber = readInput.next();
street = readInput.next();
city = readInput.nextLine();
state = readInput.next();
zip = readInput.next();
productDescription = readInput.nextLine();
productPrice = readInput.nextDouble();
Textfile looks like this:
Jane
Doe
10
Broadway
New York
NY
10001
Galaxy S10
199.99
2
Samsung Bluetooth
29.99
1
Slim Fit Hard Plastic Case
2.99
2
Charger
17.99
3
Error I get:
Exception in thread "main" java.util.InputMismatchException
at java.util.Scanner.throwFor(Unknown Source)
at java.util.Scanner.next(Unknown Source)
at java.util.Scanner.nextDouble(Unknown Source)
at hey.bcs.hwk.purchases.standalonereport.StandaloneReport.main(StandaloneReport.java:55)
I expected it to read it smoothly so I can print it using PrintStream in another file but I cannot even get past this part.

To be honest your program is problematic in so many ways. But here's an explanation to fix the mismatch issue you mentioned.
readInput.nextLine()
will read the remainder of the current line. So after reading "Broadway" the Scanner stays in the same line and when you call nextLine, the Scanner yields whatever is left in the line for "Broadway", which is an empty String.
To avoid this situation, do
street = readInput.next();
readInput.nextLine();
To drop the current line("Broadway" for example). And then call
city = readInput.nextLine();
That way the program will read "New York" as you expected. As Tom mentioned in the comments, for more details, look at the question asked here.
Apart from the Scanner issue, your program is ambiguous as to where it ends – you did not provide closing brackets. That while loop seems redundant considering that your input is broken: it ceases to match what you have in your code after the "199.99" line. Please put your complete code on there and revise your sample input.

This is for one set of data, one data item per line. You have to make adjustments for multiple sets of data.
int i = 0;
while (readInput.hasNext())
{
if (i == 0)
{
firstName = readInput.nextLine();
}
else if (i == 1)
{
lastName = readInput.nextLine();
}
else if (i == 2)
{
houseNumber = readInput.nextLine();
}
else if (i == 3)
{
street = readInput.nextLine();
}
else if (i == 4)
{
city = readInput.nextLineLine();
}
else if (i == 5)
{
state = readInput.nextLine();
}
else if (i == 6)
{
zip = readInput.nextLine();
}
else if (i == 7)
{
productDescription = readInput.nextLine();
}
else if (i == 8)
{
productPrice = readInput.nextDouble();
}
i += 1;
} // End while

Getting the next token and remaining String with StreamTokenizer

I have a StreamTokenizer that will tokenize a String. I am interested in a way to get the next token from a String, as well as the remaining String (without the token we just took).
public static void parseString(String s){
StreamTokenizer st = new StreamTokenizer(new StringReader(s));
try {
while (st.nextToken() != st.TT_EOF){
if (st.ttype == st.TT_WORD){
System.out.println("Word: " + st.sval);
if (st.sval.equals("start")){
start(st.sval, ???)
}
}
else if (st.ttype == st.TT_NUMBER){
System.out.println("Number: " + st.nval);
}
else if (st.ttype == '\''){
System.out.println(st.sval);
}
else{
System.out.println((char)st.ttype);
}
}
} catch (IOException e){}
}
public String start(String text, String theRest){
return "<start>" + text + "" + parseString(theRest) + "</start>";
}
Some things I've tried:
I've tried just using the original String s but StreamTokenizer doesn't alter a String after it tokenizes it (I forget the word to describe this).
I could find the index of the current token, and slice that token out of the original string.
I was wondering if there was a more elegant way to go about this?

In regards to the first bullet point, I believe the word you're thinking of is probably "immutable". You're correct, anything that seems to be manipulating a String is in fact creating a new string; the original is left intact.
For the second bullet point, frankly I would have suggested the same as well. At the moment I cannot think of a better way.
Here's a general example:
int startIndex = s.indexOf(currentToken) + currentToken.length;
String remainingString = s.subString(startIndex, s.length-1);
If my string is "Hi my name is Paul", and the current token is "name", the result of remainingString should be " is Paul".
You could easily encapsulate that in a helper method somewhere to help keep things clean and separated.
Probably not the answer you're looking for, but hopefully that somewhat helps.

Filter words from string

I want to filter a string.
Basically when someone types a message, I want certain words to be filtered out, like this:
User types: hey guys lol omg -omg mkdj*Omg*ndid
I want the filter to run and:
Output: hey guys lol - mkdjndid
And I need the filtered words to be loaded from an ArrayList that contains several words to filter out. Now at the moment I am doing if(message.contains(omg)) but that doesn't work if someone types zomg or -omg or similar.

Use replaceAll with a regex built from the bad word:
message = message.replaceAll("(?i)\\b[^\\w -]*" + badWord + "[^\\w -]*\\b", "");
This passes your test case:
public static void main( String[] args ) {
List<String> badWords = Arrays.asList( "omg", "black", "white" );
String message = "hey guys lol omg -omg mkdj*Omg*ndid";
for ( String badWord : badWords ) {
message = message.replaceAll("(?i)\\b[^\\w -]*" + badWord + "[^\\w -]*\\b", "");
}
System.out.println( message );
}

try:
input.replaceAll("(\\*?)[oO][mM][gG](\\*?)", "").split(" ")

Dave gave you the answer already, but I will emphasize the statement here. You will face a problem if you implement your algorithm with a simple for-loop that just replaces the occurrence of the filtered word. As an example, if you filter the word ass in the word 'classic' and replace it with 'butt', the resultant word will be 'clbuttic' which doesn't make any sense. Thus, I would suggest using a word list,like the ones stored in Linux under /usr/share/dict/ directory, to check if the word is valid or it needs filtering.
I don't quite get what you are trying to do.

I ran into this same problem and solved it in the following way:
1) Have a google spreadsheet with all words that I want to filter out
2) Directly download the google spreadsheet into my code with the loadConfigs method (see below)
3) Replace all l33tsp33k characters with their respective alphabet letter
4) Replace all special characters but letters from the sentence
5) Run an algorithm that checks all the possible combinations of words within a string against the list efficiently, note that this part is key - you don't want to loop over your ENTIRE list every time to see if your word is in the list. In my case, I found every combination within the string input and checked it against a hashmap (O(1) runtime). This way the runtime grows relatively to the string input, not the list input.
6) Check if the word is not used in combination with a good word (e.g. bass contains *ss). This is also loaded through the spreadsheet
6) In our case we are also posting the filtered words to Slack, but you can remove that line obviously.
We are using this in our own games and it's working like a charm. Hope you guys enjoy.
https://pimdewitte.me/2016/05/28/filtering-combinations-of-bad-words-out-of-string-inputs/
public static HashMap<String, String[]> words = new HashMap<String, String[]>();
public static void loadConfigs() {
try {
BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(new URL("https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1hIEi2YG3ydav1E06Bzf2mQbGZ12kh2fe4ISgLg_UBuM/export?format=csv").openConnection().getInputStream()));
String line = "";
int counter = 0;
while((line = reader.readLine()) != null) {
counter++;
String[] content = null;
try {
content = line.split(",");
if(content.length == 0) {
continue;
}
String word = content[0];
String[] ignore_in_combination_with_words = new String[]{};
if(content.length > 1) {
ignore_in_combination_with_words = content[1].split("_");
}
words.put(word.replaceAll(" ", ""), ignore_in_combination_with_words);
} catch(Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
System.out.println("Loaded " + counter + " words to filter out");
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
/**
* Iterates over a String input and checks whether a cuss word was found in a list, then checks if the word should be ignored (e.g. bass contains the word *ss).
* #param input
* #return
*/
public static ArrayList<String> badWordsFound(String input) {
if(input == null) {
return new ArrayList<>();
}
// remove leetspeak
input = input.replaceAll("1","i");
input = input.replaceAll("!","i");
input = input.replaceAll("3","e");
input = input.replaceAll("4","a");
input = input.replaceAll("#","a");
input = input.replaceAll("5","s");
input = input.replaceAll("7","t");
input = input.replaceAll("0","o");
ArrayList<String> badWords = new ArrayList<>();
input = input.toLowerCase().replaceAll("[^a-zA-Z]", "");
for(int i = 0; i < input.length(); i++) {
for(int fromIOffset = 1; fromIOffset < (input.length()+1 - i); fromIOffset++) {
String wordToCheck = input.substring(i, i + fromIOffset);
if(words.containsKey(wordToCheck)) {
// for example, if you want to say the word bass, that should be possible.
String[] ignoreCheck = words.get(wordToCheck);
boolean ignore = false;
for(int s = 0; s < ignoreCheck.length; s++ ) {
if(input.contains(ignoreCheck[s])) {
ignore = true;
break;
}
}
if(!ignore) {
badWords.add(wordToCheck);
}
}
}
}
for(String s: badWords) {
Server.getSlackManager().queue(s + " qualified as a bad word in a username");
}
return badWords;
}

Java: 2 runtime errors I can't figure out

I am working on a homework assignment, and I am going a little "above and beyond" what is called for by the assignment. I am getting a run-time error in my code, and can not for the life of me figure out what it is that I have done wrong.
Here is the assignment:
Write a program that displays a simulated paycheck. The program should ask the user to enter the date, the payee’s name, and the amount of the check. It should then display a simulated check with the dollar amount spelled out.
Here is my code:
CheckWriter:
/* CheckWriter.java */
// Imported Dependencies
import java.util.InputMismatchException;
import java.util.Scanner;
public class CheckWriter {
public static void main(String args[]) {
Scanner keyboard = new Scanner(System.in);
// Try to get the name
String name = "";
NameValidator validateName = new NameValidator();
while (validateName.validate(name) == false) {
System.out.println("Enter the name: ");
name = keyboard.nextLine();
if (validateName.validate(name) == false) {
System.out.println("Not a valid name.");
}
}
// Get the date
String date = "";
DateValidator validateDate = new DateValidator();
while (!validateDate.validate(date)) {
System.out.println("Enter the date (dd/mm/yyyy): ");
date = keyboard.nextLine();
if (!validateDate.validate(date)) {
System.out.println("Not a valid date.");
}
}
// Try to get the amount of the check
String checkAmount = "";
CurrencyValidator validateCurrency = new CurrencyValidator();
while (!validateCurrency.validate(checkAmount)) {
System.out.print("Enter the Check Amount (XX.XX): $");
checkAmount = keyboard.nextLine();
if (!validateCurrency.validate(checkAmount)) {
System.out.println("Not a valid check amount.");
}
}
String checkWords = checkToWords(checkAmount); // ERROR! (48)
System.out
.println("------------------------------------------------------\n"
+ "Date: "
+ date
+ "\n"
+ "Pay to the Order of: "
+ name
+ " $"
+ checkAmount
+ "\n"
+ checkWords
+ "\n"
+ "------------------------------------------------------\n");
}
private static String checkToWords(String checkAmount) {
/**
* Here I will use the string.split() method to separate out
* the integer and decimal portions of the checkAmount.
*/
String delimiter = "\\.\\$";
/* Remove any commas from checkAmount */
checkAmount.replace(",", "");
/* Split the checkAmount string into an array */
String[] splitAmount = checkAmount.split(delimiter);
/* Convert the integer portion of checkAmount to words */
NumberToWords intToWord = new NumberToWords();
long intPortion = Long.parseLong(splitAmount[0]); // ERROR! (84)
intToWord.convert(intPortion);
String intAmount = intToWord.getString() + " dollars";
/* Convert the decimal portion of checkAmount to words */
String decAmount = "";
long decPortion = Long.parseLong(splitAmount[1]);
if (decPortion != 0) {
NumberToWords decToWord = new NumberToWords();
decToWord.convert(Long.parseLong(splitAmount[1]));
decAmount = " and " + decToWord.getString() + " cents.";
}
return (intAmount + decAmount);
}
}
Note that I am using external class files to handle validation of the name, date, currency, and conversion from numbers to words. These class files all work as intended.
The error I am getting is:
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NumberFormatException: For input string: ""
at java.lang.NumberFormatException.forInputString(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.Long.parseLong(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.Long.parseLong(Unknown Source)
at CheckWriter.checkToWords(CheckWriter.java:82)
at CheckWriter.main(CheckWriter.java:46)
I have commented the lines in my code that are causing the errors that I am experiencing.
Could someone please assist me in figuring where my code is going wrong? I can include the other class files if you feel that it would be needed.
EDIT: When I run the code, it asks for the name and date. Before asking for the check amount is when it throws the error.
EDIT 2: A huge thank you to cotton.m! Thanks to his advice, I have changed the while statements to look like this:
while(!validateDate.validate(date) && date == "")
This has now fixed my issue. It would appear that when validating data with a regex expression, an empty string will return true.

The String you are trying to parse in an empty length string.
My suggestion would be to
1) Check the value of checkAmount at the start of checkToWords - if it is blank there's your problem
2) Don't do that split. Just replace the $ like you did the , (I think this is your real problem)
Also you are going to have another issue in that 10000.00 is not a long. I see you are splitting out the . but is that really what you want?

It is NumberFormatException, the value in checkAmount (method parameter) is not a valid Number.
You need to set checkAmount=checkAmount.replace(",", "");
Otherwise checkAmount will still have , inside and causes NumberFormatExcpetion.

Your issue is with your delimiter regex, currently you are using \.\$ which will split on a literal . followed by a literal $. I'm assuming that what you are actually intending to do is to split on either a . or a $, so change your delimiter to one of the following:
String delimiter = "\\.|\\$"
or
String delimiter = "[\\.\\$]"
As your code is now, checkAmount.split(delimiter) is not actually successfully splitting the string anywhere, so Long.parseLong(splitAmount[0]) is equivalent to Long.parseLong(checkAmount).

It should be:
String delimiter = "[\\.\\$]";
and then you have to check that splitWord[i] is not empty.