This should be easy...

[Tom McCallum]

Hi,

I am trying to replace all words starting with a question mark - how do
you do this? Have tried everything I can think of to get Java to not use
? as just being a character but it keeps on failing.

Example:
String to be replaced: My name is ?myname
Replace with string: Tom
Problem: how to write a regular expression in Java to replace '?myname'
with 'Tom'.

Many thanks for your help in advance

Tom

 

[klynn47]

One idea without regular expressions would be to use the charAt method
and the UNICODE representation of ?

 

[Tom McCallum]

Tried it, Java then converts it to a question mark and throws a runtime
wabbly Problem is Java does not seem to support the escape sequence \?
so putting ? or \? is a no-no.

Cheers for your reply

Tom

 

[klynn47]

What about using startsWith("?")

 

[Tom McCallum]

Solved it !!!

Use Pattern and Matcher rather than replaceAll. ReplaceAll seems to be
badly written.

see http://www.javapractices.com/Topic80.cjp

Tom

 

[Patricia Shanahan]

Hi,

I am trying to replace all words starting with a question mark - how do
you do this? Have tried everything I can think of to get Java to not
use ? as just being a character but it keeps on failing.

Example:
String to be replaced: My name is ?myname
Replace with string: Tom
Problem: how to write a regular expression in Java to replace '?myname'
with 'Tom'.

Many thanks for your help in advance

Tom

Use "\\?myname".

The double "\" puts a single "\" in the String literal,
which turns the "?" into a normal character.

Patricia

 

[Virgil Green]

Tried it, Java then converts it to a question mark and throws a
runtime wabbly Problem is Java does not seem to support the
escape sequence \? so putting ? or \? is a no-no.

You need to double the backslash so it is escaped to a single backslash in
java that can be passed to the regex parser.