java regex pattern string format

Question

I am exploring Regular expressions.

Problem statement : Replace String between # and # with the values provided in replacements map.

import java.util.regex.*;
import java.util.*;

public class RegExTest {
    public static void main(String args[]){

        HashMap<String,String> replacements = new HashMap<String,String>();
        replacements.put("OldString1","NewString1");
        replacements.put("OldString2","NewString2");
        replacements.put("OldString3","NewString3");

        String source = "#OldString1##OldString2#_ABCDEF_#OldString3#";

        Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile("\\#(.+?)\\#");
        //Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile("\\#\\#");
        Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(source);
        StringBuffer buffer = new StringBuffer();
        while (matcher.find()) {
            matcher.appendReplacement(buffer, "");
            buffer.append(replacements.get(matcher.group(1)));            
        }
        matcher.appendTail(buffer);
        System.out.println("OLD_String:"+source);
        System.out.println("NEW_String:"+buffer.toString());

    }
}

Output: ( Caters to my requirement but does not know who group(1) command works)

OLD_String:#OldString1##OldString2#_ABCDEF_#OldString3#
NEW_String:NewString1NewString2_ABCDEF_NewString3

If I change the code as below

Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile("\\#(.+?)\\#");

with

Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile("\\#\\#");

I am getting below error:

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.IndexOutOfBoundsException: No group 1

I did not understand difference between

"\\#(.+?)\\#" and `"\\#\\#"`

Can you explain the difference?

rexegg.com/regex-quickstart.html might help

bananas
– bananas

2016-08-20 06:55:30 +00:00
Commented Aug 20, 2016 at 6:55 — bananas
– bananas, Commented Aug 20, 2016 at 6:55

Sebastian Lenartowicz · Accepted Answer · 2016-08-20 06:51:13Z

2

The difference is fairly straightforward - \\#(.+?)\\# will match two hashes with one or more chars between them, while \\#\\# will match two hashes next to each other.

A more powerful question, to my mind, is "what is the difference between \\#(.+?)\\# and \\#.+?\\#?"

In this case, what's different is what is (or isn't) getting captured. Brackets in a regex indicate a capture group - basically, some substring you want to output separately from the overall matched string. In this case, you're capturing the text in between the hashes - the first pattern will capture and output it separately, while the second will not. Try it yourself - asking for matcher.group(1) on the first will return that text, while the second will produce an exception, even though they both match the same text.

answered Aug 20, 2016 at 6:51

Sebastian Lenartowicz

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Comments

djb · Accepted Answer · 2016-08-20 06:51:40Z

0

.+? Tells it to match (one or more of) anything lazily (until it sees a #). So as soon as it parses one instance of something, it stops.

I think the \#\# would match ## so i think the error is because it only matches that one ## and then there's only a group 0, no group 1. But not 100% on that part.

answered Aug 20, 2016 at 6:51

djb

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