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Get Substring from a String in Java

I have the following text:
...,Niedersachsen,NOT IN CHARGE SINCE: 03.2009, CATEGORY:...,
Now I want to extract the date after NOT IN CHARGE SINCE: until the comma.
So i need only 03.2009 as result in my substring.
So how can I handle that?
String substr = "not in charge since:";
String before = s.substring(0, s.indexOf(substr));
String after = s.substring(s.indexOf(substr),s.lastIndexOf(","));
EDIT
for (String s : split) {
s = s.toLowerCase();
if (s.contains("ex peps")) {
String substr = "not in charge since:";
String before = s.substring(0, s.indexOf(substr));
String after = s.substring(s.indexOf(substr), s.lastIndexOf(","));
System.out.println(before);
System.out.println(after);
System.out.println("PEP!!!");
} else {
System.out.println("Line ok");
}
}
But that is not the result I want.

You can use Patterns for example :
String str = "Niedersachsen,NOT IN CHARGE SINCE: 03.2009, CATEGORY";
Pattern p = Pattern.compile("\\d{2}\\.\\d{4}");
Matcher m = p.matcher(str);
if (m.find()) {
System.out.println(m.group());
}
Output
03.2009
Note : if you want to get similar dates in all your String you can use while instead of if.
Edit
Or you can use :
String str = "Niedersachsen,NOT IN CHARGE SINCE: 03.03.2009, CATEGORY";
Pattern p = Pattern.compile("SINCE:(.*?)\\,");
Matcher m = p.matcher(str);
if (m.find()) {
System.out.println(m.group(1).trim());
}

You can use : to separate the String s.
String substr = "NOT IN CHARGE SINCE:";
String before = s.substring(0, s.indexOf(substr)+1);
String after = s.substring(s.indexOf(':')+1, s.lastIndexOf(','));

Of course, regular expressions give you more ways to do searching/matching, but assuming that the ":" is the key thing you are looking for (and it shows up exactly once in that position) then:
s.substring(s.indexOf(':')+1, s.lastIndexOf(',')).trim();
is the "most simple" and "least overhead" way of fetching that substring.
Hint: as you are searching for a single character, use a character as search pattern; not a string!

If you have a more generic usecase and you know the structure of the text to be matched well you might profit from using regular expressions:
Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile(".*NOT IN CHARGE SINCE: \([0-9.]*\),");
Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(line);
System.out.println(matcher.group());

A more generic way to solve your problem is to use Regex to match Every group Between : and ,
Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile("(?<=:)(.*?)(?=,)");
Matcher m = p.matcher(str);

You have to create a pattern for it. Try this as a simple regex starting point, and feel free to improvise on it:
String s = "...,Niedersachsen,NOT IN CHARGE SINCE: 03.2009, CATEGORY:....,";
Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile(".*NOT IN CHARGE SINCE: ([\\d\\.]*).*");
Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(s);
if (matcher.find())
{
System.out.println(matcher.group(1));
}
That should get you whatever group of digits you received as date.

Regex to get value between two colon excluding the colons

I have a string like this:
something:POST:/some/path
Now I want to take the POST alone from the string. I did this by using this regex
:([a-zA-Z]+):
But this gives me a value along with colons. ie I get this:
:POST:
but I need this
POST
My code to match the same and replace it is as follows:
String ss = "something:POST:/some/path/";
Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile(":([a-zA-Z]+):");
Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(ss);
if (matcher.find()) {
System.out.println(matcher.group());
ss = ss.replaceFirst(":([a-zA-Z]+):", "*");
}
System.out.println(ss);
EDIT:
I've decided to use the lookahead/lookbehind regex since I did not want to use replace with colons such as :*:. This is my final solution.
String s = "something:POST:/some/path/";
String regex = "(?<=:)[a-zA-Z]+(?=:)";
Matcher matcher = Pattern.compile(regex).matcher(s);
if (matcher.find()) {
s = s.replaceFirst(matcher.group(), "*");
System.out.println("replaced: " + s);
}
else {
System.out.println("not replaced: " + s);
}

There are two approaches:
Keep your Java code, and use lookahead/lookbehind (?<=:)[a-zA-Z]+(?=:), or
Change your Java code to replace the result with ":*:"
Note: You may want to define a String constant for your regex, since you use it in different calls.

As pointed out, the reqex captured group can be used to replace.
The following code did it:
String ss = "something:POST:/some/path/";
Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile(":([a-zA-Z]+):");
Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(ss);
if (matcher.find()) {
ss = ss.replaceFirst(matcher.group(1), "*");
}
System.out.println(ss);

UPDATE
Looking at your update, you just need ReplaceFirst only:
String result = s.replaceFirst(":[a-zA-Z]+:", ":*:");
See the Java demo
When you use (?<=:)[a-zA-Z]+(?=:), the regex engine checks each location inside the string for a * before it, and once found, tries to match 1+ ASCII letters and then assert that there is a : after them. With :[A-Za-z]+:, the checking only starts after a regex engine found : character. Then, after matching :POST:, the replacement pattern replaces the whole match. It is totlally OK to hardcode colons in the replacement pattern since they are hardcoded in the regex pattern.
Original answer
You just need to access Group 1:
if (matcher.find()) {
System.out.println(matcher.group(1));
}
See Java demo
Your :([a-zA-Z]+): regex contains a capturing group (see (....) subpattern). These groups are numbered automatically: the first one has an index of 1, the second has the index of 2, etc.
To replace it, use Matcher#appendReplacement():
String s = "something:POST:/some/path/";
StringBuffer result = new StringBuffer();
Matcher m = Pattern.compile(":([a-zA-Z]+):").matcher(s);
while (m.find()) {
m.appendReplacement(result, ":*:");
}
m.appendTail(result);
System.out.println(result.toString());
See another demo

This is your solution:
regex = (:)([a-zA-Z]+)(:)
And code is:
String ss = "something:POST:/some/path/";
ss = ss.replaceFirst("(:)([a-zA-Z]+)(:)", "$1*$3");
ss now contains:
something:*:/some/path/
Which I believe is what you are looking for...

Finding Upper Case in String Array and extracting it out

I have an array input like this which is an email id in reverse order along with some data:
MOC.OOHAY#ABC.PQRqwertySDdd
MOC.OOHAY#AB.JKLasDDbfn
MOC.OOHAY#XZ.JKGposDDbfn
I want my output to come as
MOC.OOHAY#ABC.PQR
MOC.OOHAY#AB.JKL
MOC.OOHAY#XZ.JKG
How should I filter the string since there is no pattern?

There is a pattern, and that is any upper case character which is followed either by another upper case letter, a period or else the # character.
Translated, this would become something like this:
String[] input = new String[]{"MOC.OOHAY#ABC.PQRqwertySDdd","MOC.OOHAY#AB.JKLasDDbfn" , "MOC.OOHAY#XZ.JKGposDDbfn"};
Pattern p = Pattern.compile("([A-Z.]+#[A-Z.]+)");
for(String string : input)
{
Matcher matcher = p.matcher(string);
if(matcher.find())
System.out.println(matcher.group(1));
}
Yields:
MOC.OOHAY#ABC.PQR
MOC.OOHAY#AB.JKL
MOC.OOHAY#XZ.JKG

Why do you think there is no pattern?
You clearly want to get the string till you find a lowercase letter.
You can use the regex (^[^a-z]+) to match it and extract.
Regex Demo

Simply split on [a-z], with limit 2:
String s1 = "MOC.OOHAY#ABC.PQRqwertySDdd";
String s2 = "MOC.OOHAY#AB.JKLasDDbfn";
String s3 = "MOC.OOHAY#XZ.JKGposDDbfn";
System.out.println(s1.split("[a-z]", 2)[0]);
System.out.println(s2.split("[a-z]", 2)[0]);
System.out.println(s3.split("[a-z]", 2)[0]);
Demo.

You can do it like this:
String arr[] = { "MOC.OOHAY#ABC.PQRqwertySDdd", "MOC.OOHAY#AB.JKLasDDbfn", "MOC.OOHAY#XZ.JKGposDDbfn" };
for (String test : arr) {
Pattern p = Pattern.compile("[A-Z]*\\.[A-Z]*#[A-Z]*\\.[A-Z.]*");
Matcher m = p.matcher(test);
if (m.find()) {
System.out.println(m.group());
}
}

Java RegExp to get variable image name with its extension from javascript

I am trying to get the image name from the following javascript.
var g_prefetch ={'Im': {url:'\/az\/hprichbg\/rb\/WhiteTippedRose_ROW10477559674_1366x768.jpg', hash:'674'}
Problem:
The name of the image is variable. That is, in the above example code the image changes regularly.
Output I want:
WhiteTippedRose_ROW10477559674_1366x768.jpg
and i tried the following regExp :
Pattern p = Pattern.compile("\{\'Im\'\: \{url\:\'\\\/az\\\/hprichbg\\\/rb\\\/(.*?)\.jpg\'\, hash\:\'674\'\}");
//System.out.println(p);
Matcher m=p.matcher(out);
if(m.find()) {
System.out.println(m.group());
}
I don't know too much RegExp so please help me and let me understand the approach.
Thank You

I would use the following regex, it should be fast enough:
Pattern p = Pattern.compile("[^/]+\\.jpg");
Matcher m = p.matcher(str);
if (m.find()) {
String match = m.group();
System.out.println(match);
}
This will match the a full sequence of characters ending with .jpg not including /.
I think that the correct approach will be to check the correct legality of a file name.
Here is a list of not legal characters for Windows: "\\/:*?\"<>|"
for Mac /:
Linux/Unix /;
Here is more complex example assuming format will change , it is mostly designed for legal Window file name:
String s = "{'Im': {url:'\\/az\\/hprichbg\\/rb\\/?*<>WhiteTippedRose_ROW10477559674_1366x768.jpg', hash:'674'}";
Pattern p = Pattern.compile("[^\\/:*?\"<>|]+\\.jpg");
Matcher m = p.matcher(s);
if (m.find()) {
String match = m.group();
System.out.println(match);
}
This will still print
WhiteTippedRose_ROW10477559674_1366x768.jpg
Here you may find a demo

Assuming that the image is always placed after a / and does not contain any /, you can use the following:
String s = "{'Im': {url:'\\/az\\/hprichbg\\/rb\\/WhiteTippedRose_ROW10477559674_1366x768.jpg', hash:'674'}";
s = s.replaceAll(".*?([^/]*?\\.jpg).*", "$1");
System.out.println("s = " + s);
outputs:
s = WhiteTippedRose_ROW10477559674_1366x768.jpg
In substance:
.*? skip the beginning of the string until the next pattern is found
([^/]*?\\.jpg) a group like "xxx.jpg" where xxx does not contain any "/"
.* rest of the string
$1 returns the content of the group

If the String is always of this form, I would simply do:
int startIndex = s.indexOf("rb\\/") + 4;
int endIndex = s.indexOf('\'', startIndex);
String image = s.substring(startIndex, endIndex);

Retrieving Regex matched pattern

I need to retrieve a regex pattern matched strings from the given input.
Lets say, the pattern I need to get is like,
"http://mysite.com/<somerandomvalues>/images/<againsomerandomvalues>.jpg"
Now I created the following regex pattern for this,
http:\/\/.*\.mysite\.com\/.*\/images\/.*\.jpg
Can anybody illustrate how to retrieve all the matched pattern with this regx expression using Java?

You don't mask slashes but literal dots:
String regex = "http://(.*)\\.mysite\\.com/(.*)/images/(.*)\\.jpg";
String url = "http://www.mysite.com/work/images/cat.jpg";
Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile (regex);
Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher (url);
if (matcher.matches ())
{
int n = matcher.groupCount ();
for (int i = 0; i <= n; ++i)
System.out.println (matcher.group (i));
}
Result:
www
work
cat

Some simple Java example:
String my_regex = "http://.*.mysite.com/.*/images/.*.jpg";
Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile(my_regex);
Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(string_to_be_matched);
// Check all occurance
while (matcher.find()) {
System.out.print("Start index: " + matcher.start());
System.out.print(" End index: " + matcher.end() + " ");
System.out.println(matcher.group());
}

In fact, it is not clear if you want the whole matching string or only the groups.
Bogdan Emil Mariesan's answer can be reduced to
if ( matcher.matches () ) System.out.println(string_to_be_matched);
because you know it is mathed and there are no groups.
IMHO, user unknown's answer is correct if you want to get matched groups.
I just want to add additional information (for others) that if you need matched group you can use replaceFirst() method too:
String firstGroup = string.replaceFirst( "http://mysite.com/(.*)/images/", "$1" );
But performance of Pattern.compile approach if better if there are two or more groups or if you need to do that multiple times (on the other hand in programming contests, for example, it is faster to write replaceFirst()).