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How to parse string using regex

I'm pretty new to java, trying to find a way to do this better. Potentially using a regex.
String text = test.get(i).toString()
// text looks like this in string form:
// EnumOption[enumId=test,id=machine]
String checker = text.replace("[","").replace("]","").split(",")[1].split("=")[1];
// checker becomes machine
My goal is to parse that text string and just return back machine. Which is what I did in the code above.
But that looks ugly. I was wondering what kinda regex can be used here to make this a little better? Or maybe another suggestion?

Use a regex' lookbehind:
(?<=\bid=)[^],]*
See Regex101.
(?<= ) // Start matching only after what matches inside
\bid= // Match "\bid=" (= word boundary then "id="),
[^],]* // Match and keep the longest sequence without any ']' or ','
In Java, use it like this:
import java.util.regex.*;
class Main {
public static void main(String[] args) {
Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile("(?<=\\bid=)[^],]*");
Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher("EnumOption[enumId=test,id=machine]");
if (matcher.find()) {
System.out.println(matcher.group(0));
}
}
}
This results in
machine

Assuming you’re using the Polarion ALM API, you should use the EnumOption’s getId method instead of deparsing and re-parsing the value via a string:
String id = test.get(i).getId();

Using the replace and split functions don't take the structure of the data into account.
If you want to use a regex, you can just use a capturing group without any lookarounds, where enum can be any value except a ] and comma, and id can be any value except ].
The value of id will be in capture group 1.
\bEnumOption\[enumId=[^=,\]]+,id=([^\]]+)\]
Explanation
\bEnumOption Match EnumOption preceded by a word boundary
\[enumId= Match [enumId=
[^=,\]]+, Match 1+ times any char except = , and ]
id= Match literally
( Capture group 1
[^\]]+ Match 1+ times any char except ]
)\]
Regex demo | Java demo
Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile("\\bEnumOption\\[enumId=[^=,\\]]+,id=([^\\]]+)\\]");
Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher("EnumOption[enumId=test,id=machine]");
if (matcher.find()) {
System.out.println(matcher.group(1));
}
Output
machine
If there can be more comma separated values, you could also only match id making use of negated character classes [^][]* before and after matching id to stay inside the square bracket boundaries.
\bEnumOption\[[^][]*\bid=([^,\]]+)[^][]*\]
In Java
String regex = "\\bEnumOption\\[[^][]*\\bid=([^,\\]]+)[^][]*\\]";
Regex demo

A regex can of course be used, but sometimes is less performant, less readable and more bug-prone.
I would advise you not use any regex that you did not come up with yourself, or at least understand completely.
PS: I think your solution is actually quite readable.
Here's another non-regex version:
String text = "EnumOption[enumId=test,id=machine]";
text = text.substring(text.lastIndexOf('=') + 1);
text = text.substring(0, text.length() - 1);
Not doing you a favor, but the downvote hurt, so here you go:
String input = "EnumOption[enumId=test,id=machine]";
Matcher matcher = Pattern.compile("EnumOption\\[enumId=(.+),id=(.+)\\]").matcher(input);
if(!matcher.matches()) {
throw new RuntimeException("unexpected input: " + input);
}
System.out.println("enumId: " + matcher.group(1));
System.out.println("id: " + matcher.group(2));

Parsing text using Regex

So I am trying to parse a String that contains two key components. One tells me the timing options, and the other is position.
Here is what the text looks like
KB_H9Oct4GFP_20130305_p00{iiii}t00000{ttt}z001c02.tif
The {iiii} is the position and the {ttt} is the timing options.
I need to separate the {ttt} and {iiii} out so I can get a full file name: example, position 1 and time slice 1 = KB_H9Oct4GFP_20130305_p0000001t000000001z001c02.tif
So far here is how I am parsing them:
int startTimeSlice = 1;
int startTile = 1;
String regexTime = "([^{]*)\\{([t]+)\\}(.*)";
Pattern patternTime = Pattern.compile(regexTime);
Matcher matcherTime = patternTime.matcher(filePattern);
if (!matcherTime.find() || matcherTime.groupCount() != 3)
{
throw new IllegalArgumentException("Incorect filePattern: " + filePattern);
}
String timePrefix = matcherTime.group(1);
int tCount = matcherTime.group(2).length();
String timeSuffix = matcherTime.group(3);
String timeMatcher = timePrefix + "%0" + tCount + "d" + timeSuffix;
String timeFileName = String.format(timeMatcher, startTimeSlice);
String regex = "([^{]*)\\{([i]+)\\}(.*)";
Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile(regex);
Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(timeFileName);
if (!matcher.find() || matcher.groupCount() != 3)
{
throw new IllegalArgumentException("Incorect filePattern: " + filePattern);
}
String prefix = matcher.group(1);
int iCount = matcher.group(2).length();
String suffix = matcher.group(3);
String nameMatcher = prefix + "%0" + iCount + "d" + suffix;
String fileName = String.format(nameMatcher, startTile);
Unfortunately my code is not working and it fails when checking if the second matcher finds anything in timeFileName.
After the first regex check it gets the following as the timeFileName: 000000001z001c02.tif, so it is cutting off the beginning potions including the {iiii}
Unfortunately I cannot assuming which group goes first ({iiii} or {ttt}), so I am trying to devise a solution that just handles {ttt} first and then processes {iiii}.
Also, here is another example of valid text that I am also trying to parse: F_{iii}_{ttt}.tif

Steps to follow:
Find string {ttt...} in file name
Form a number format based on no of "t" in string
Find string {iiii...} in file name
Form a number format based on no of "i" in string
Use String.replace() method to replace time and possition
Here is the code:
String filePattern = "KB_H9Oct4GFP_20130305_p00{iiii}t00000{ttt}z001c02.tif";
int startTimeSlice = 1;
int startTile = 1;
Pattern patternTime = Pattern.compile("(\\{[t]*\\})");
Matcher matcherTime = patternTime.matcher(filePattern);
if (matcherTime.find()) {
String timePattern = matcherTime.group(0);// {ttt}
NumberFormat timingFormat = new DecimalFormat(timePattern.replaceAll("t", "0")
.substring(1, timePattern.length() - 1));// 000
Pattern patternPosition = Pattern.compile("(\\{[i]*\\})");
Matcher matcherPosition = patternPosition.matcher(filePattern);
if (matcherPosition.find()) {
String positionPattern = matcherPosition.group(0);// {iiii}
NumberFormat positionFormat = new DecimalFormat(positionPattern
.replaceAll("i", "0").substring(1, positionPattern.length() - 1));// 0000
System.out.println(filePattern.replace(timePattern,
timingFormat.format(startTimeSlice)).replace(positionPattern,
positionFormat.format(startTile)));
}
}

Okay, so after a bit of testing I found a way to handle the case:
For parsing the {ttt} I can use the regex: (.*)\\{t([t]+)\\}(.*)
Now this means I have to increment tCount by one to account for the t I grab from \\{t
Same goes for {iii}: (.*)\\{i([i]+)\\}(.*)

Your first pattern looks like this:
String regexTime = "([^{]*)\\{([t]+)\\}(.*)";
This finds a string consisting of a sequence of zero or more non-{ characters, followed by {t...t}, followed by other characters.
When your input is
KB_H9Oct4GFP_20130305_p00{iiii}t00000{ttt}z001c02.tif
the first substring that matches is
iiii}t00000{ttt}z001c02.tif
The { before the i's can't match, because you told it only to match non-{ characters. The result is that when you re-form the string to do the second match, it will start with iiii} and therefore won't match {iiii} like you're trying to do.
When you're looking for {ttt...}, I don't see any reason to exclude { or any other character from the first part of the string. So changing the regex to
"^(.*)\\{(t+\\}(.*)$"
may be a simple way to fix this. Note that if you want to make sure you include the entire beginning of the string and the entire end of the string in your groups, you should include ^ and $ to match the beginning and end of the string, respectively; otherwise the matcher engine may decide not to include everything. In this case, it won't, but it's a good habit to get into anyway, because that makes things explicit and doesn't require anyone to know the difference between "greedy" and "reluctant" matching. Or use matches() instead of find(), since matches() automatically tries to match the entire string.

Perhaps an easier way to do this (as confirmed by http://regex101.com/r/vG7kY7) is
(\{i+\}).*(\{t+\})
You don't need the [] around a single character you are matching. Keep it simple. i+ means "one or more i's", and as long as these are in the order given, this expression will work (with the first match being {iiii} and the second {ttttt}).
You may need to escape the backslash when writing it in a string...

Regular expression pattern to find a number within a semicolon delimited list of numbers

String temp = "77"; // It can be 0 or 100 or any value
// So the pattern will be like this only but number can be change anytime
String inclusion = "100;0;77;200;....;90";
I need to write a regular expression so that I can see whether temp exists in inclusion or not so for that I wrote a regexPattern like this.
// This is the regular Expression I wrote.
String regexPattern = "(^|.*;)" + temp + "(;.*|$)";
So do you think this regular expression will work everytime or there is some problem with that regexPattern?
if(inclusion.matches(regexPattern)) {
}

You could run into issues if temp can contain special characters for regular expressions, but if it is always integers then your method should be fine.
However, a more straightforward way to do this would be to split your string on semi-colons and then see if temp is in the resulting array.
If you do stick with regex, you can simplify it a bit by dropping the .*, the following will work the same way as your current regex:
"(^|;)" + temp + "(;|$)"
edit: Oops, the above will actually not work, I am a bit unfamiliar with regex in Java and didn't realize that the entire string needs to match, thanks Affe!

You don't need regex:
temp = "77"
String searchPattern = ";" + temp + ";";
String inclusion = ";" + "100;0;77;200;....;90" + ";";
inclusion.indexOf(searchPattern);

Another alternative without regex
String inclusion2 = ";" + inclusion + ";"; // To ensure that all number are between semicolons
if (inclusion2.indexOf(";" + temp + ";") =! -1) {
// found
}
Of course, no pattern recognition here (wildcards and the like)

Regular expression to match unescaped special characters only

I'm trying to come up with a regular expression that can match only characters not preceded by a special escape sequence in a string.
For instance, in the string Is ? stranded//? , I want to be able to replace the ? which hasn't been escaped with another string, so I can have this result : **Is Dave stranded?**
But for the life of me I have not been able to figure out a way. I have only come up with regular expressions that eat all the replaceable characters.
How do you construct a regular expression that matches only characters not preceded by an escape sequence?

Use a negative lookbehind, it's what they were designed to do!
(?<!//)[?]
To break it down:
(
?<! #The negative look behind. It will check that the following slashes do not exist.
// #The slashes you are trying to avoid.
)
[\?] #Your special charactor list.
Only if the // cannot be found, it will progress with the rest of the search.
I think in Java it will need to be escaped again as a string something like:
Pattern p = Pattern.compile("(?<!//)[\\?]");

Try this Java code:
str="Is ? stranded//?";
Pattern p = Pattern.compile("(?<!//)([?])");
m = p.matcher(str);
StringBuffer sb = new StringBuffer();
while (m.find()) {
m.appendReplacement(sb, m.group(1).replace("?", "Dave"));
}
m.appendTail(sb);
String s = sb.toString().replace("//", "");
System.out.println("Output: " + s);
OUTPUT
Output: Is Dave stranded?

I was thinking about this and have a second simplier solution, avoiding regexs. The other answers are probably better but I thought I might post it anyway.
String input = "Is ? stranded//?";
String output = input
.replace("//?", "a717efbc-84a9-46bf-b1be-8a9fb714fce8")
.replace("?", "Dave")
.replace("a717efbc-84a9-46bf-b1be-8a9fb714fce8", "?");
Just protect the "//?" by replacing it with something unique (like a guid). Then you know any remaining question marks are fair game.

Use grouping. Here's one example:
import java.util.regex.*;
class Test {
public static void main(String[] args) {
Pattern p = Pattern.compile("([^/][^/])(\\?)");
String s = "Is ? stranded//?";
Matcher m = p.matcher(s);
if (m.matches)
s = m.replaceAll("$1XXX").replace("//", "");
System.out.println(s + " -> " + s);
}
}
Output:
$ java Test
Is ? stranded//? -> Is XXX stranded?
In this example, I'm:
first replacing any non-escaped ? with "XXX",
then, removing the "//" escape sequences.
EDIT Use if (m.matches) to ensure that you handle non-matching strings properly.
This is just a quick-and-dirty example. You need to flesh it out, obviously, to make it more robust. But it gets the general idea across.

Match on a set of characters OTHER than an escape sequence, then a regex special character. You could use an inverted character class ([^/]) for the first bit. Special case an unescaped regex character at the front of the string.

String aString = "Is ? stranded//?";
String regex = "(?<!//)[^a-z^A-Z^\\s^/]";
System.out.println(aString.replaceAll(regex, "Dave"));
The part of the regular expression [^a-z^A-Z^\\s^/] matches non-alphanumeric, whitespace or non-forward slash charaters.
The (?<!//) part does a negative lookbehind - see docco here for more info
This gives the output Is Dave stranded//?

try matching:
(^|(^.)|(.[^/])|([^/].))[special characters list]

I used this one:
((?:^|[^\\])(?:\\\\)*[ESCAPABLE CHARACTERS HERE])
Demo: https://regex101.com/r/zH1zO3/4

Regular expression, value in between quotes

I'm having a little trouble constructing the regular expression using java.
The constraint is, I need to split a string seperated by !. The two strings will be enclosed in double quotes.
For example:
"value"!"value"
If I performed a java split() on the string above, I want to get:
value
value
However the catch is value can be any characters/punctuations/numerical character/spaces/etc..
So here's a more concrete example. Input:
""he! "l0"!"wor!"d1"
Java's split() should return:
"he! "l0
wor!"d1
Any help is much appreciated. Thanks!

Try this expression: (".*")\s*!\s*(".*")
Although it would not work with split, it should work with Pattern and Matcher and return the 2 strings as groups.
String input = "\" \"he\"\"\"\"! \"l0\" ! \"wor!\"d1\"";
Pattern p = Pattern.compile("(\".*\")\\s*!\\s*(\".*\")");
Matcher m = p.matcher(input);
if(m.matches())
{
String s1 = m.group(1); //" "he""""! "l0"
String s2 = m.group(2); //"wor!"d1"
}
Edit:
This would not work for all cases, e.g. "he"!"llo" ! "w" ! "orld" would get the wrong groups. In that case it would be really hard to determine which ! should be the separator. That's why often rarely used characters are used to separate parts of a string, like # in email addresses :)

have the value split on "!" instead of !
String REGEX = "\"!\"";
String INPUT = "\"\"he! \"l0\"!\"wor!\"d1\"";
String[] items = p.split(INPUT);

It feels like you need to parse on:
DOUBLEQUOTE = "
OTHER = anything that isn't a double quote
EXCLAMATION = !
ITEM = (DOUBLEQUOTE (OTHER | (DOUBLEQUOTE OTHER DOUBLEQUOTE))* DOUBLEQUOTE
LINE = ITEM (EXCLAMATION ITEM)*
It feels like it's possible to create a regular expression for the above (assuming the double quotes in an ITEM can't be nested even further) BUT it might be better served by a very simple grammer.
This might work... excusing missing escapes and the like
^"([^"]*|"[^"]*")*"(!"([^"]*|"[^"]*")*")*$
Another option would be to match against the first part, then, if there's a !and more, prune off the ! and keep matching (excuse the no-particular-language, I'm just trying to illustrate the idea):
resultList = []
while(string matches \^"([^"]*|"[^"]*")*(.*)$" => match(1)) {
resultList += match
string = match(2)
if(string.beginsWith("!")) {
string = string[1:end]
} elseif(string.length > 0) {
// throw an error, since there was no exclamation and the string isn't done
}
}
if(string.length > 0) {
// throw an exception since the string isn't done
}
resultsList == the list of items in the string
EDIT: I realized that my answer doesn't really work. You can have a single doublequote inside the strings, as well as exclamation marks. As such, you really CAN'T have "!" inside one of the strings. As such, the idea of 1) pull quotes off the ends, 2) split on '"!"' is really the right way to go.