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Split strings based on single occurrence of delimiter but not double in Java

How to split a string using single occurrence of a delimiter disregarding multiple occurrences?
For example, if the string contains
aaa, bbb,,ccc, ddd
I would like to split the string as follows:
aaa
bbb,,ccc
ddd
Tried using Regex with split() but unable to acquire the desired result.
Came across the solution in Javascript here: Split string with a single occurence (not twice) of a delimiter in Javascript. Is it possible to achieve the same in Java, with or without Regex?

String.split() accepts regular expressions as delimiters so you could use the following pattern :
(?<!,),(?!,)
This regex matches a comma that is neither preceded nor followed by a comma.
You can see it in action here : https://ideone.com/CmtAzX
If you want to trim the leading spaces at the same time you can use (?<!,),(?!,) * as mentioned by Nicolas Filotto.

Regex allows you to specify that a given symbol is neither preceded nor followed by another specified symbol. In your case you should use (?<!,),(?!,). In general (?<!x)y(?!z) would find 'y' if it is neither preceeded by 'x' nor followed by 'z'.

Remove repeating set of characters in a string

I want to remove the sequesnce "-~-~-" if it repeats in a string, but only if they are together.
I have tried to create a regex based on the removing of multiple white spaces regex:
test.replaceAll("\\s+", " ");
Unfortunately I was unsuccessful. Can someone please help me write the correct regex? thanks.
Example:
string test = "hello-~-~--~-~--~-~-"
output:
hello-~-~-
Another example
string test = "-~-~--~-~--~-~-hello-~-~--~-~--~-~-"
output:
-~-~-hello-~-~-

The regex is:
test.replaceAll("(-~-~-){2,}", "-~-~-")
replaceAll replaces all occurrences matched by the regex (the first parameter) with the second parameter.
the () groups the expression -~-~- together, {2,} means two or more occurrences.
EDIT
Like #anubhava said, instead of using -~-~- for the replacement string, you could also use $1 which backreferences the first capturing group (i.e. the expression in the regex surrounded by ()).

test.replaceAll("(-~-~-)+", "-~-~-");

This is the regex you need:
(-~-~-){2}

What is this Java regex code doing?

I just found this method inside a "Utils"-type class in our codebase. It was written a long time ago by a developer who no longer works for us. What in tarnation is it doing? What is it returning?!? Of course, there's no JavaDocs or comments.
public static String stripChars(String toChar, String ptn){
String stripped = "";
stripped = toChar.replaceAll(ptn, "$1");
return stripped.trim();
}
Thanks in advance!

It's a very short alias, essentially. This:
stripChars(a, b)
Is equivalent to:
a.replaceAll(b, "$1").trim()

It seems to replace everything in "toChar" which matches the regular expression "ptn" with the first group to match in "toChar"
Regular expressions have a concept of groups, for example matching "year 2012" and replacing it with "year 1012", or "year 2006" with "year 1007" (changing the first 20 to 10) can be accomplished by replacing
"year 20([0-9][9-9])" with "year 20$1" -- That is, match the entire string, and then replace it "year 20" followed by the first group ($1). The group is the first thing in parenthesis.
Anyway, your method then replaces everything that matches "ptn" in "toChar" with the first group in the regular expression "ptn". So given
stripChars("year 2012", "year 20([0-9][9-9]"); You would receive back only "12" because the entire text would match and be replaced by only the first group.
It then trips any leading or trailing whitespace.

The pattern string that is passed as argument method seems to contain a matching group and the call to replace all is going to replace the entire match to the paatern with the portion that matched the first group. You should look for the call hierarchy of this method to find some regexes passed to the method along with the strings that are being worked upon,

It's just replacing a string with its own subset of matched characters and then trimming the spaces from both end.
Fo example
So if you want a word to be replaced by a series of digits of that word
Use the regex \b.*?(\d*).*?\b
and then boom,your replaceAll method will give these results
hey123wow->123
what666->666
how888->888
$0 refers to the whole matched string i.e hey123wow,what666,how888 in this example
$1 refers to the group.i.e.(\d*) in this example i.e.123,666,888
$2 would refer to the second group which does not exist in this example.

toChar.replaceAll(ptn, "$1");
Its replacing all the occurences of ptn in toChar with the captured group $1 which we don't know where it is.
Capture groups are patterns inside brackets (): -
For E.G in the below Regex : -
"(\\d+)(cd)"
$0 denotes the complete match
$1 denotes the first capture group (\\d+)
$2 denotes the second capture group (cd)
String str1 = "xyz12cd";
// This will replace `12cd` with the first capture group `12`
str1 = str1.replaceAll("(\\d+)(cd)", "$1");
System.out.println(str1);
For learning more about Regular Expression, you can refer to the following links: -
http://www.vogella.com/articles/JavaRegularExpressions/article.html
http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/essential/regex/

Need some help getting some stuff off a string

I want to get some info out of my string but there's two possible "expressions" for the string. I want to get "a" & "b" out of the string. This is how they look:
Format one:
http://default.com/default/a/b
Format two:
http://default.com/#!default|1|a|b|1
How can I do this?

If the strings always looks like this, you could do the following:
Search for the #-char to decide, if you have type 1 or 2.
In case of type 1, split with delimiter '/' and always take the last and the one before. For type 2, also first split with '/' and then, split the last part again with delimiter '|' and take results[2] and results[3].

Use a regex to split the string.
Split on "default"
Regex Split

There are many ways you can do this - regular expressions is the most common.
In pseudo code:
if the string contains "/#!default" then:
Use the regular expression ^.*/([^/])/([^/])$
if the string contains "/default" then:
Use the regular expression ^.*|([^|])|([^|])|1$
Take the 1st and 2nd blocks from the matcher

How do I write a regular expression to find the following pattern?

I am trying to write a regular expression to do a find and replace operation. Assume Java regex syntax. Below are examples of what I am trying to find:
12341+1
12241+1R1
100001+1R2
So, I am searching for a string beginning with one or more digits, followed by a "1+1" substring, followed by 0 or more characters. I have the following regex:
^(\d+)(1\\+1).*
This regex will successfully find the examples above, however, my goal is to replace the strings with everything before "1+1". So, 12341+1 would become 1234, and 12241+1R1 would become 1224. If I use the first grouped expression $1 to replace the pattern, I get the wrong result as follows:
12341+1 becomes 12341
12241+1R1 becomes 12241
100001+1R2 becomes 100001
Any ideas?

Your existing regex works fine, just that you are missing a \ before \d
String str = "100001+1R2";
str = str.replaceAll("^(\\d+)(1\\+1).*","$1");
Working link

IMHO, the regex is correct.
Perhaps you wrote it wrong in the code. If you want to code the regex ^(\d+)(1\+1).* in a string, you have to write something like String regex = "^(\\d+)(1\\+1).*".
Your output is the result of ^(\d+)(1+1).* replacement, as you miss some backslash in the string (e.g. "^(\\d+)(1\+1).*").

Your regex looks fine to me - I don't have access to java but in JavaScript the code..
"12341+1".replace(/(\d+)(1\+1)/g, "$1");
Returns 1234 as you'd expect. This works on a string with many 'codes' in too e.g.
"12341+1 54321+1".replace(/(\d+)(1\+1)/g, "$1");
gives 1234 5432.

Personally, I wouldn't use a Regex at all (it'd be like using a hammer on a thumbtack), I'd just create a substring from (Pseudocode)
stringName.substring(0, stringName.indexOf("1+1"))
But it looks like other posters have already mentioned the non-greedy operator.
In most Regex Syntaxes you can add a '?' after a '+' or '*' to indicate that you want it to match as little as possible before moving on in the pattern. (Thus: ^(\d+?)(1+1) matches any number of digits until it finds "1+1" and then, NOT INCLUDING the "1+1" it continues matching, whereas your original would see the 1 and match it as well).