Need help parsing strings in Java - java

I am reading in a csv file in Java and, depending on the format of the string on a given line, I have to do something different with it. The three different formats contained in the csv file are (using random numbers):
833
"79, 869"
"56-57, 568"
If it is just a single number (833), I want to add it to my ArrayList. If it is two numbers separated by a comma and surrounded by quotations ("79, 869)", I want to parse out the first of the two numbers (79) and add it to the ArrayList. If it is three numbers surrounded by quotations (where the first two numbers are separated by a dash, and the third by a comma ["56-57, 568"], then I want to parse out the third number (568) and add it to the ArrayList.
I am having trouble using str.contains() to determine if the string on a given line contains a dash or not. Can anyone offer me some help? Here is what I have so far:
private static void getFile(String filePath) throws java.io.IOException {
BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(filePath));
String str;
while ((str = reader.readLine()) != null) {
if(str.endsWith("\"")){
if (str.contains(charDash)){
System.out.println(str);
}
}
}
}
Thanks!

I recommend using the version of indexOf that actually takes a char rather than a string, since this method is much faster. (It is a simple loop, without a nested loop.)
I.e.
if (str.indexOf('-')!=-1) {
System.out.println(str);
}
(Note the single quotes, so this is a char, rather than a string.)
But then you have to split the line and parse the individual values. At present, you are testing if the whole line ends with a quote, which is probably not what you want.

The following code works for me (note: I wrote it with no optimization in mind - it's just for testing purposes):
public static void main(String args[]) {
ArrayList<String> numbers = GetNumbers();
}
private static ArrayList<String> GetNumbers() {
String str1 = "833";
String str2 = "79, 869";
String str3 = "56-57, 568";
ArrayList<String> lines = new ArrayList<String>();
lines.add(str1);
lines.add(str2);
lines.add(str3);
ArrayList<String> numbers = new ArrayList<String>();
for (Iterator<String> s = lines.iterator(); s.hasNext();) {
String thisString = s.next();
if (thisString.contains("-")) {
numbers.add(thisString.substring(thisString.indexOf(",") + 2));
} else if (thisString.contains(",")) {
numbers.add(thisString.substring(0, thisString.indexOf(",")));
} else {
numbers.add(thisString);
}
}
return numbers;
}
Output:
833
79
568

Although it gets a lot of hate these days, I still really like the StringTokenizer for this kind of stuff. You can set it up to return the tokens and, at least to me, it makes the processing trivial without interacting with regexes
you'd have to create it using ",- as your tokens, then just kick it off in a loop.
st=new StringTokenizer(line, "\",-", true);
Then you set up a loop:
while(st.hasNextToken()) {
String token=st.nextToken();
Each case becomes it's own little part of the loop:
// Use punctuation to set flags that tell you how to interpret the numbers.
if(token == "\"") {
isQuoted = !isQuoted;
} else if(token == ",") {
...
} else if(...) {
...
} else { // The punctuation has been dealt with, must be a number group
// Apply flags to determine how to parse this number.
}
I realize that StringTokenizer is outdated now, but I'm not really sure why. Parsing regular expressions can't be faster and the syntax is--well split is a pretty sweet syntax I gotta admit.
I guess if you and everyone you work with is really comfortable with Regular Expressions you could replace that with split and just iterate over the resultant array but I'm not sure how to get split to return the punctuation--probably that "+" thing from other answers but I never trust that some character I'm passing to a regular expression won't do something utterly unexpected.

will
if (str.indexOf(charDash.toString()) > -1){
System.out.println(str);
}
do the trick?
which by the way is fastest than contains... because it implements indexOf

Will this work?
if(str.contains("-")) {
System.out.println(str);
}
I wonder if the charDash variable is not what you are expecting it to be.

I think three regexes would be your best bet - because with a match, you also get the bit you're interested in. I suck at regex, but something along the lines of:
.*\-.*, (.+)
.*, (.+)
and
(.+)
ought to do the trick (in order, because the final pattern matches anything including the first two).

Related

Why I cannot get the string without tokens with the program I have written?

Scanner scan = new Scanner(System.in);
String s = scan.nextLine();
Queue q=new LinkedList();
for(int i=0;i<s.length();i++){
int x=(int)s.charAt(i);
if(x<65 || (x>90 && x<97) || x>122) {
q.add(s.charAt(i));
}
}
System.out.println(q.peek());
String redex="";
while(!q.isEmpty()) {
redex+=q.remove();
}
String[] x=s.split(redex,-1);
for(String y:x) {
if(y!=null)
System.out.println(y);
}
scan.close();
I am trying to print the string "my name is NLP and I, so, works:fine;"yes"." without tokens such as {[]}+-_)*&%$ but it just prints out all the String as it is, and I don't understand the problem?
This is 3 answers in one:
For your initial problem
For a solution without regex
For a correct use of Scanner (this is up to you).
First
When you use a regex build from whatever character you got under the hand, you should quote it:
String[] x=s.split(Pattern.quote(redex),-1);
That would be the usual problem, but the second problem is that you are building a regexp range but you are omitting the [] making the range, so it can work as is:
String[] x=s.split("[" + Pattern.quote(redex) + "]",-1);
This one may work, but may fail if Pattern.quote don't quote - and - is found in between two characters making a range such as : $-!.
This would means: character in range starting at $ from !. It may fail if the range is invalid and my example may be invalid ($ may be after !).
Finally, you may use:
String redex = q.stream()
.map(Pattern::quote)
.collect(Collectors.joining("|"));
This regexp should match the unwanted character.
Second:
For the rest, the other answer point out another problem: you are not using the Character.isXXX method to check for valid characters.
Firstly, be wary that some method does not use char but code points. For example, isAlphabetic use code points. A code points is simply a representation of a character in a multibyte encoding. There some unicode character which take two char.
Secondly, I think your problem lies in the fact you are not using the right tool to split your words.
In pseudo code, this should be:
List<String> words = new ArrayList<>();
int offset = 0;
for (int i = 0, n = line.length(); i < n; ++i) {
// if the character fail to match, then we switched from word to non word
if (!Character.isLetterOrDigit(line.charAt(i)) {
if (offset != i) {
words.add(line.substring(offset, i));
}
offset = i + 1; // next char
}
}
if (offset != line.length()) {
words.add(line.substring(offset));
}
This would:
- Find transition from word to non word and change offset (where we started)
- Add word to the list
- Add the last token as ending word.
Last
Alternatively, you may also play with Scanner class since it allows you to input a custom delimiter for its hasNext(): https://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/util/Scanner.html
I quote the class javadoc:
The scanner can also use delimiters other than whitespace. This
example reads several items in from a string:
String input = "1 fish 2 fish red fish blue fish";
Scanner s = new Scanner(input).useDelimiter("\\s*fish\\s*");
System.out.println(s.nextInt());
System.out.println(s.nextInt());
System.out.println(s.next());
System.out.println(s.next());
s.close();
As you guessed, you may pass on any delimiter and then use hasNext() and next() to get only valid words.
For example, using [^a-zA-Z0-9] would split on each non alpha/digit transition.
As noted in the comment, the condition x<65 will catch all sorts of special characters you're not interested in. Using Character's built-in methods will help you write this condition in a clearer, bug-free way:
x = s.charAt(i);
if (Character.isLetter(x) || Character.isWhiteSpace(x)) {
q.add(x);
}

Java: Checking each space in a String

I'm sure this is fairly simple, however I've tried googling the question but can't find an answer that fits my problem.
I'm playing around with string manipulation and one of the things I'm trying to do is get the first letter of each word. (And then place them all into a string)
I'm having trouble with registering each 'space' so that my If statement will be triggered. Here's what I have so far.
while (scanText.hasNext()) {
boolean isSpace = false;
if (scanText.hasNext(" ")) {isSpace = true;}
String s = scanText.next();
if (isSpace) {firstLetters += s + " ";}
}
Also, if there is a much better way to do this then please let me know
You can also split the original text by spaces, and collect the words.
String input = " Hello world aaa ";
String[] split = input.trim().split("\\s+"); // all types of whitespace; " +" to pick spaces only
// operate on "split" array containing words now: [Hello, world, aaa]
However using regexps here might be overkill.
Assuming that scanText is a Scanner object, you could use something like stated on the documentation:
Scanner s = new Scanner(input).useDelimiter("\\s+"); //regex for spaces
https://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/util/Scanner.html

Java IF Statement necessary?

I have:
String str = "Hello, how, are, you";
I want to create a helper method that removes the commas from any string. Which of the following is more accurate?
private static String removeComma(String str){
if(str.contains(",")){
str = str.replaceAll(",","");
}
return str;
}
OR
private static String removeComma(String str){
str = str.replaceAll(",","");
return str;
}
Seems like I don't need the IF statement but there might be a case where I do.
If there is a better way let me know.
Both are functionally equivalent but the former is more verbose and will probably be slower because it runs an extra operation.
Also note that you don't need replaceAll (which accepts a regular expression): replace will do.
So I would go for:
private static String removeComma(String str){
return str.replace(",", "");
}
The IF statement is unnecessary, unless you're handling "large" strings (we're talking megabytes or more).
If you're using the IF statement, your code will first search for the first occurance of a comma, and then execute the replacement. This could be costly if the comma is near the end of the string and your string is large, since it will have to be traversed twice.
Without the IF statement, commas will be replaced if they exist. If the answer is negative, your string will be untouched.
Bottom rule: use the version without the IF statement.
Both are correct, but the second one is cleaner since the IF statement of the first alternative is not needed.
It's a matter of what is the probability to have strings with comma in your universe of strings.
If you have a high probability, call the method replaceAll without checking first.
BUT If you are not using extremely huge strings, I guess you will see no difference in perfomance at all.
Just another solution with time complexity O(n), space complexity O(n):
public static String removeComma(String str){
int length = str.length();
StringBuffer sb = new StringBuffer();
for (int i = 0; i < length; i++) {
char c = str.charAt(i);
if (c != ',') {
sb.append(c);
}
}
return sb.toString();
}

How can i extract specific terms from string lines in Java?

I have a serious problem with extracting terms from each string line. To be more specific, I have one csv formatted file which is actually not csv format (it saves all terms into line[0] only)
So, here's just example string line among thousands of string lines:
(split() doesn't work.!!! )
test.csv
"31451 CID005319044   15939353   C8H14O3S2    beta-lipoic acid   C1C[S#](=O)S[C##H]1CCCCC(=O)O "
"12232 COD05374044 23439353  C924O3S2    saponin   CCCC(=O)O "
"9048   CTD042032 23241  C3HO4O3S2 Berberine  [C##H]1CCCCC(=O)O "
I want to extract "beta-lipoic acid" ,"saponin" and "Berberine" only which is located in 5th position.
You can see there are big spaces between terms, so that's why I said 5th position.
In this case, how can I extract terms located in 5th position for each line?
One more thing: the length of whitespace between each of the six terms is not always equal. the length could be one, two, three, four, or five, or something like that.
Because the length of whitespace is random, I can not use the .split() function.
For example, in the first line I would get "beta-lipoic" instead "beta-lipoic acid.**
Here is a solution for your problem using the string split and index of,
import java.util.ArrayList;
public class StringSplit {
public static void main(String[] args) {
String[] seperatedStr = null;
int fourthStrIndex = 0;
String modifiedStr = null, finalStr = null;
ArrayList<String> strList = new ArrayList<String>();
strList.add("31451 CID005319044   15939353   C8H14O3S2 beta-lipoic acid C1C[S#](=O)S[C##H]1CCCCC(=O)O ");
strList.add("12232 COD05374044 23439353 C924O3S2 saponin CCCC(=O)O ");
strList.add("9048 CTD042032 23241 C3HO4O3S2 Berberine [C##H]1CCCCC(=O)O ");
for (String item: strList) {
seperatedStr = item.split("\\s+");
fourthStrIndex = item.indexOf(seperatedStr[3]) + seperatedStr[3].length();
modifiedStr = item.substring(fourthStrIndex, item.length());
finalStr = modifiedStr.substring(0, modifiedStr.indexOf(seperatedStr[seperatedStr.length - 1]));
System.out.println(finalStr.trim());
}
}
}
Output:
beta-lipoic acid
saponin
Berberine
Option 1 : Use spring.split and check for multiple consecutive spaces. Like the code below:
String s[] = str.split("\\s\\s+");
for (String string : s) {
System.out.println(string);
}
Option 2 : Implement your own string split logic by browsing through all the characters. Sample code below (This code is just to give an idea. I didnot test this code.)
public static List<String> getData(String str) {
List<String> list = new ArrayList<>();
String s="";
int count=0;
for(char c : str.toCharArray()){
System.out.println(c);
if (c==' '){
count++;
}else {
s = s+c;
}
if(count>1&&!s.equalsIgnoreCase("")){
list.add(s);
count=0;
s="";
}
}
return list;
}
This would be a relatively easy fix if it weren't for beta-lipoic acid...
Assuming that only spaces/tabs/other whitespace separate terms, you could split on whitespace.
Pattern whitespace = Pattern.compile("\\s+");
String[] terms = whitespace.split(line); // Not 100% sure of syntax here...
// Your desired term should be index 4 of the terms array
While this would work for the majority of your terms, this would also result in you losing the "acid" in "beta-lipoic acid"...
Another hacky solution would be to add in a check for the 6th spot in the array produced by the above code and see if it matches English letters. If so, you can be reasonably confident that the 6th spot is actually part of the same term as the 5th spot, so you can then concatenate those together. This falls apart pretty quickly though if you have terms with >= 3 words. So something like
Pattern possibleEnglishWord = Pattern.compile([[a-zA-Z]*); // Can add dashes and such as needed
if (possibleEnglishWord.matches(line[5])) {
// return line[4].append(line[5]) or something like that
}
Another thing you can try is to replace all groups of spaces with a single space, and then remove everything that isn't made up of just english letters/dashes
line = whitespace.matcher(line).replaceAll("");
Pattern notEnglishWord = Pattern.compile("^[a-zA-Z]*"); // The syntax on this is almost certainly wrong
notEnglishWord.matcher(line).replaceAll("");
Then hopefully the only thing that is left would be the term you're looking for.
Hopefully this helps, but I do admit it's rather convoluted. One of the issues is that it appears that non-term words may have only one space between them, which would fool Option 1 as presented by Hirak... If that weren't the case that option should work.
Oh by the way, if you do end up doing this, put the Pattern declarations outside of any loops. They only need to be created once.

Regular expression for validating an answer to a question

Hey everyone,
I'm having a minor difficulty setting up a regular expression that evaluates a sentence entered by a user in a textbox to keyword(s). Essentially, the keywords have to be entered consecutive from one to the other and can have any number of characters or spaces before, between, and after (ie. if the keywords are "crow" and "feet", crow must be somewhere in the sentence before feet. So with that in mind, this statement should be valid "blah blah sccui crow dsj feet "). The characters and to some extent, the spaces (i would like the keywords to have at least one space buffer in the beginning and end) are completely optional, the main concern is whether the keywords were entered in their proper order.
So far, I was able to have my regular expression work in a sentence but failed to work if the answer itself was entered only.
I have the regular expression used in the function below:
// Comparing an answer with the right solution
protected boolean checkAnswer(String a, String s) {
boolean result = false;
//Used to determine if the solution is more than one word
String temp[] = s.split(" ");
//If only one word or letter
if(temp.length == 1)
{
if (s.length() == 1) {
// check multiple choice questions
if (a.equalsIgnoreCase(s)) result = true;
else result = false;
}
else {
// check short answer questions
if ((a.toLowerCase()).matches(".*?\\s*?" + s.toLowerCase() + "\\s*?.*?")) result = true;
else result = false;
}
}
else
{
int count = temp.length;
//Regular expression used to
String regex=".*?\\s*?";
for(int i = 0; i<count;i++)
regex+=temp[i].toLowerCase()+"\\s*?.*?";
//regex+=".*?";
System.out.println(regex);
if ((a.toLowerCase()).matches(regex)) result = true;
else result = false;
}
return result;
Any help would greatly be appreciated.
Thanks.
I would go about this in a different way. Instead of trying to use one regular expression, why not use something similar to:
String answer = ... // get the user's answer
if( answer.indexOf("crow") < answer.indexOf("feet") ) {
// "correct" answer
}
You'll still need to tokenize the words in the correct answer, then check in a loop to see if the index of each word is less than the index of the following word.
I don't think you need to split the result on " ".
If I understand correctly, you should be able to do something like
String regex="^.*crow.*\\s+.*feet.*"
The problem with the above is that it will match "feetcrow feetcrow".
Maybe something like
String regex="^.*\\s+crow.*\\s+feet\\s+.*"
That will enforce that the word is there as opposed to just in a random block of characters.
Depending on the complexity Bill's answer might be the fastest solution. If you'd prefer a regular expression, I wouldn't look for any spaces, but word boundaries instead. That way you won't have to handle commas, dots, etc. as well:
String regex = "\\bcrow(?:\\b.*\\b)?feet\\b"
This should match "crow bla feet" as well as "crowfeet" and "crow, feet".
Having to match multiple words in a specific order you could just join them together using '(?:\b.*\b)?' without requiring any additional sorting or checking.
Following Bill answer, I'd try this:
String input = // get user input
String[] tokens = input.split(" ");
String key1 = "crow";
String key2 = "feet";
String[] tokens = input.split(" ");
List<String> list = Arrays.asList(tokens);
return list.indexOf(key1) < list.indexOf(key2)

Categories