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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));

Regular expression to handle two different file extensions

I am trying to create a regular expression that takes a file of name
"abcd_04-04-2020.txt" or "abcd_04-04-2020.txt.gz"
How can I handle the "OR" condition for the extension. This is what I have so far
if(fileName.matches("([\\w._-]+[0-9]{2}-[0-9]{2}-[0-9]{4}.[a-zA-Z]{3})")){
Pattern.compile("[._]+[0-9]{2}-[0-9]{2}-[0-9]{4}\\.");
}
This handles only the .txt. How can I handle ".txt.gz"
Thanks

Why not just use endsWith instead complex regex
if(fileName.endsWith(".txt") || fileName.endsWith(".txt.gz")){
Pattern.compile("[._]+[0-9]{2}-[0-9]{2}-[0-9]{4}\\.");
}

You can use the below regex to achieve your purpose:
^[\w-]+\d{2}-\d{2}-\d{4}\.txt(?:\.gz)?$
Explanation of the above regex:]
^,$ - Matches start and end of the test string resp.
[\w-]+ - Matches word character along with hyphen one or more times.
\d{} - Matches digits as many numbers as mentioned in the curly braces.
(?:\.gz)? - Represents non-capturing group matching .gz zero or one time because of ? quantifier. You could have used | alternation( or as you were expecting OR) but this is legible and more efficient too.
You can find the demo of the above regex here.
IMPLEMENTATION IN JAVA:
import java.util.regex.*;
public class Main
{
private static final Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile("^[\\w-]+\\d{2}-\\d{2}-\\d{4}\\.txt(?:\\.gz)?$", Pattern.MULTILINE);
public static void main(String[] args) {
String testString = "abcd_04-04-2020.txt\nabcd_04-04-2020.txt.gz\nsomethibsnfkns_05-06-2020.txt\n.txt.gz";
Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(testString);
while(matcher.find()){
System.out.println(matcher.group(0));
}
}
}
You can find the implementation of the above regex in java in here.
NOTE: If you want to match for valid dates also; please visit this.

You can replace .[a-zA-Z]{3} with .txt(\.gz)
if(fileName.matches("([\\w._-]+[0-9]{2}-[0-9]{2}-[0-9]{4}).txt(\.gz)?")){
Pattern.compile("[._]+[0-9]{2}-[0-9]{2}-[0-9]{4}\\.");
}

? will work for your required | . Try adding
(.[a-zA-Z]{2})?
to your original regex
([\w._-]+[0-9]{2}-[0-9]{2}-[0-9]{4}.[a-zA-Z]{3}(.[a-zA-Z]{2})?)

A possible way of doing it:
Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile("^[\\w._-]+_\\d{2}-\\d{2}-\\d{4}(\\.txt(\\.gz)?)$");
Then you can run the following test:
String[] fileNames = {
"abcd_04-04-2020.txt",
"abcd_04-04-2020.tar",
"abcd_04-04-2020.txt.gz",
"abcd_04-04-2020.png",
".txt",
".txt.gz",
"04-04-2020.txt"
};
Arrays.stream(fileNames)
.filter(fileName -> pattern.matcher(fileName).find())
.forEach(System.out::println);
// output
// abcd_04-04-2020.txt
// abcd_04-04-2020.txt.gz

I think what you want (following from the direction you were going) is this:
[\\w._-]+[0-9]{2}-[0-9]{2}-[0-9]{4}\\.[a-zA-Z]{3}(?:$|\\.[a-zA-Z]{2}$)
At the end, I have a conditional statement. It has to either match the end of the string ($) OR it has to match a literal dot followed by 2 letters (\\.[a-zA-Z]{2}). Remember to escape the ., because in regex . means "match any character".

Regex matching up to a character if it occurs

I need to match string as below:
match everything upto ;
If - occurs, match only upto - excluding -
For e.g. :
abc; should return abc
abc-xyz; should return abc
Pattern.compile("^(?<string>.*?);$");
Using above i can achieve half. but dont know how to change this pattern to achieve the second requirement. How do i change .*? so that it stops at forst occurance of -
I am not good with regex. Any help would be great.
EDIT
I need to capture it as group. i cant change it since there many other patterns to match and capture. Its only part of it that i have posted.
Code looks something like below.
public static final Pattern findString = Pattern.compile("^(?<string>.*?);$");
if(findString.find())
{
return findString.group("string"); //cant change anything here.
}

Just use a negated char class.
^[^-;]*
ie.
Pattern p = Pattern.compile("^[^-;]*");
Matcher m = p.matcher(str);
while(m.find()) {
System.out.println(m.group());
}
This would match any character at the start but not of - or ;, zero or more times.

This should do what you are looking for:
[^-;]*
It matches characters that are not - or ;.
Tipp: If you don't feel sure with regular expressions there are great online solutions to test your input, e.g. https://regex101.com/

UPDATE
I see you have an issue in the code since you try to access .group in the Pattern object, while you need to use the .group method of the Matcher object:
public static String GetTheGroup(String str) {
Pattern findString = Pattern.compile("(?s)^(?<string>.*?)[;-]");
Matcher matcher = findString.matcher(str);
if (matcher.find())
{
return matcher.group("string"); //you have to change something here.
}
else
return "";
}
And call it as
System.out.println(GetTheGroup("abc-xyz;"));
See IDEONE demo
OLD ANSWER
Your ^(?<string>.*?);$ regex only matches 0 or more characters other than a newline from the beginning up to the first ; that is the last character in the string. I guess it is not what you expect.
You should learn more about using character classes in regex, as you can match 1 symbol from a specified character set that is defined with [...].
You can achieve this with a String.split taking the first element only and a [;-] regex that matches a ; or - literally:
String res = "abc-xyz;".split("[;-]")[0];
System.out.println(res);
Or with replaceAll with (?s)[;-].*$ regex (that matches the first ; or - and then anything up to the end of string:
res = "abc-xyz;".replaceAll("(?s)[;-].*$", "");
System.out.println(res);
See IDEONE demo

I have found the solution without removing groupings.
(?<string>.*?) matches everything upto next grouping pattern
(?:-.*?)? followed by a non grouping pattern starts with - and comes zero or once.
; end character.
So putting all together:
public static final Pattern findString = Pattern.compile("^(?<string>.*?)(?:-.*?)?;$");
if(findString.find())
{
return findString.group("string"); //cant change anything here.
}

Returning substring without markers using Pattern&Matcher

I want to use Pattern and Matcher to return the following string as multiple variables.
ArrayList <Pattern> pArray = new ArrayList <Pattern>();
pArray.add(Pattern.compile("\\[[0-9]{2}/[0-9]{2}/[0-9]{2} [0-9]{2}:[0-9]{2}\\]"));
pArray.add(Pattern.compile("\\[\\d{1,5}\\]"));
pArray.add(Pattern.compile("\\[[a-zA-Z[^#0-9]]+\\]"));
pArray.add(Pattern.compile("\\[#.+\\]"));
pArray.add(Pattern.compile("\\[[0-9]{10}\\]"));
Matcher iMatcher;
String infoString = "[03/12/13 10:00][30][John Smith][5554215445][#Comment]";
for (int i = 0 ; i < pArray.size() ; i++)
{
//out.println(pArray.get(i).toString());
iMatcher = pArray.get(i).matcher(infoString);
while (dateMatcher.find())
{
String found = iMatcher.group();
out.println(found.substring(1, found.length()-1));
}
}
}
the program outputs:
[03/12/13 10:00]
[30]
[John Smith]
[\#Comment]
[5554215445]
The only thing I need is to have the program not print the brackets and the # character.
I can easily avoid printing the brackets using substrings inside the loop but I cannot avoid the # character. # is only a comment indentifier in the string.
Can this be done inside the loop?

How about this?
public static void main(String[] args) {
String infoString = "[03/12/13 10:00][30][John Smith][5554215445][#Comment]";
final Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile("\\[#?(.+?)\\]");
final Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(infoString);
while (matcher.find()) {
System.out.println(matcher.group(1));
}
}
You just need to make the .+ non greedy and it will match everything between square brackets. We then use a match group to grab what we want rather than using the whole matched pattern, a match group is represented by (pattern). The #? matches a hash before the match group so that it doesn't get into the group.
The match group is retreived using matcher.group(1).
Output:
03/12/13 10:00
30
John Smith
5554215445
Comment

Use lookaheads. i.e. change all your \\[ (in your regex) with positive lookbehind:
(?<=\\[)
and then change all your \\] (in your regex) with positive lookahead:
(?=\\])
finally change \\[# (in your regex) with positive lookbehind:
(?<=\\[#)

Author and time matching regex

I would to use a regex in my Java program to recognize some feature of my strings.
I've this type of string:
`-Author- has wrote (-hh-:-mm-)
So, for example, I've a string with:
Cecco has wrote (15:12)
and i've to extract author, hh and mm fields. Obviously I've some restriction to consider:
hh and mm must be numbers
author hasn't any restrictions
I've to consider space between "has wrote" and (
How can I can use regex?
EDIT: I attach my snippet:
String mRegex = "(\\s)+ has wrote \\((\\d\\d):(\\d\\d)\\)";
Pattern mPattern = Pattern.compile(mRegex);
String[] str = {
"Cecco CQ has wrote (14:55)", //OK (matched)
"yesterday you has wrote that I'm crazy", //NO (different text)
"Simon has wrote (yesterday)", // NO (yesterday isn't numbers)
"John has wrote (22:32)", //OK
"James has wrote(22:11)", //NO (missed space between has wrote and ()
"Tommy has wrote (xx:ss)" //NO (xx and ss aren't numbers)
};
for(String s : str) {
Matcher mMatcher = mPattern.matcher(s);
while (mMatcher.find()) {
System.out.println(mMatcher.group());
}
}

homework?
Something like:
(.+) has wrote \((\d\d):(\d\d)\)
Should do the trick
() - mark groups to capture (there are three in the above)
.+ - any chars (you said no restrictions)
\d - any digit
\(\) escape the parens as literals instead of a capturing group
use:
Pattern p = Pattern.compile("(.+) has wrote \\((\\d\\d):(\\d\\d)\\)");
Matcher m = p.matcher("Gareth has wrote (12:00)");
if( m.matches()){
System.out.println(m.group(1));
System.out.println(m.group(2));
System.out.println(m.group(3));
}
To cope with an optional (HH:mm) at the end you need to start to use some dark regex voodoo:
Pattern p = Pattern.compile("(.+) has wrote\\s?(?:\\((\\d\\d):(\\d\\d)\\))?");
Matcher m = p.matcher("Gareth has wrote (12:00)");
if( m.matches()){
System.out.println(m.group(1));
System.out.println(m.group(2));
System.out.println(m.group(3));
}
m = p.matcher("Gareth has wrote");
if( m.matches()){
System.out.println(m.group(1));
// m.group(2) == null since it didn't match anything
}
The new unescaped pattern:
(.+) has wrote\s?(?:\((\d\d):(\d\d)\))?
\s? optionally match a space (there might not be a space at the end if there isn't a (HH:mm) group
(?: ... ) is a none capturing group, i.e. allows use to put ? after it to make is optional
I think #codinghorror has something to say about regex

The easiest way to figure out regular expressions is to use a testing tool before coding.
I use an eclipse plugin from http://www.brosinski.com/regex/
Using this I came up with the following result:
([a-zA-Z]*) has wrote \((\d\d):(\d\d)\)
Cecco has wrote (15:12)
Found 1 match(es):
start=0, end=23
Group(0) = Cecco has wrote (15:12)
Group(1) = Cecco
Group(2) = 15
Group(3) = 12
An excellent turorial on regular expression syntax can be found at http://www.regular-expressions.info/tutorial.html

Well, just in case you didn't know, Matcher has a nice function that can draw out specific groups, or parts of the pattern enclosed by (), Matcher.group(int). Like if I wanted to match for a number between two semicolons like:
:22:
I could use the regex ":(\\d+):" to match one or more digits between two semicolons, and then I can fetch specifically the digits with:
Matcher.group(1)
And then its just a matter of parsing the String into an int. As a note, group numbering starts at 1. group(0) is the whole match, so Matcher.group(0) for the previous example would return :22:
For your case, I think the regex bits you need to consider are
"[A-Za-z]" for alphabet characters (you could probably also safely use "\\w", which matchers alphabet characters, as well as numbers and _).
"\\d" for digits (1,2,3...)
"+" for indicating you want one or more of the previous character or group.