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is there a way to do regex backreference replacement with the String class
without Pattern and Matcher? for example, I'd like to do something like
this:
String somebigstring = "blahblahblah<hooey>and some stuff here</hooey> and
some other stuff";
String mystring = somebigstring.replace("(.*)<hooey>(*.)</hooey","\2");

such that mystring is then the stuff between the hooey tags.

just seems to me that the 4-5 lines of pattern/matcher code i have to write
to achieve this is way overkill and so i have to believe there's a much
simpler way to do it with String, but i can't get backreferences to work in
replacements. probably missign something stupid, but i can't find it.

thanks a lot.

Marc

On Apr 28, 8:01 am, "Marc E" <noex...@hifiwebdesign.com> wrote:
> is there a way to do regex backreference replacement with the String class
> without Pattern and Matcher? for example, I'd like to do something like
> this:
> String somebigstring = "blahblahblah<hooey>and some stuff here</hooey> and
> some other stuff";
> String mystring = somebigstring.replace("(.*)<hooey>(*.)</hooey","\2");
>
> such that mystring is then the stuff between the hooey tags.
>
> just seems to me that the 4-5 lines of pattern/matcher code i have to write
> to achieve this is way overkill and so i have to believe there's a much
> simpler way to do it with String, but i can't get backreferences to work in
> replacements. probably missign something stupid, but i can't find it.
>
> thanks a lot.
>
> Marc

public class MarcE{

public static void main(String[] args){
String somebigstring =
"blahblahblah<hooey>and some stuff here</hooey> and some other
stuff";

String mystring = somebigstring.substring
(somebigstring.indexOf("<hooey>") +"<hooey>".length(),
somebigstring.indexOf("</hooey>"));

String mystring2 = somebigstring.replaceAll
("^(.*?)<hooey>(.*?)</hooey>(.*?)$", "$2");

System.out.println(mystring);
System.out.println(mystring2);
}
}

ahhhh, the dollar signs. i was using backslashes like you do with matcher.

thanks a million SadRed.


"SadRed" <> wrote in message
news: oups.com...
> On Apr 28, 8:01 am, "Marc E" <noex...@hifiwebdesign.com> wrote:
>> is there a way to do regex backreference replacement with the String
>> class
>> without Pattern and Matcher? for example, I'd like to do something like
>> this:
>> String somebigstring = "blahblahblah<hooey>and some stuff here</hooey>
>> and
>> some other stuff";
>> String mystring = somebigstring.replace("(.*)<hooey>(*.)</hooey","\2");
>>
>> such that mystring is then the stuff between the hooey tags.
>>
>> just seems to me that the 4-5 lines of pattern/matcher code i have to
>> write
>> to achieve this is way overkill and so i have to believe there's a much
>> simpler way to do it with String, but i can't get backreferences to work
>> in
>> replacements. probably missign something stupid, but i can't find it.
>>
>> thanks a lot.
>>
>> Marc
>
> public class MarcE{
>
> public static void main(String[] args){
> String somebigstring =
> "blahblahblah<hooey>and some stuff here</hooey> and some other
> stuff";
>
> String mystring = somebigstring.substring
> (somebigstring.indexOf("<hooey>") +"<hooey>".length(),
> somebigstring.indexOf("</hooey>"));
>
> String mystring2 = somebigstring.replaceAll
> ("^(.*?)<hooey>(.*?)</hooey>(.*?)$", "$2");
>
> System.out.println(mystring);
> System.out.println(mystring2);
> }
> }
>