Replace all occurrences of String in file (Java)

Question

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Replace all occurrences of substring in a string - which is more efficient in Java?

I'm trying to replace all occurrences of \t (tab) with four spaces in a file. I've been searching for a while but couldn't find anything useful.

I found out that I need to create a temporary file.

programatically in Java. I should probably state that in the title.. — Fuze, May 13 '12 at 21:09
@ant No, OP wants the whole shebang -- create temp file, open file, read, write, close, delete old, rename temp to real name. — Marko Topolnik, May 13 '12 at 21:11

ratchet freak · Accepted Answer · 2012-05-13T21:22:55.863

5

there is a function for this called replace

String output = input.replace("\t","    ");

to do this with a file create a temp file and open a FileWriter for it

open a FileReader for the original file

the in a loop call readln(), check for null, replace("\t"," ") and write on the appropriate objects

then close the reader and writer and delete() the original file and rename() the temp file to the original file

edited May 13 '12 at 21:22

answered May 13 '12 at 21:09

ratchet freak

I guess You meant replaceAll("\t"," "); – Shine May 13 '12 at 21:13
3

@Shine no. `replaceAll` works with a regexp as an input, while `replace` uses a `CharSequence`. No need for regexps here. – Guillaume Polet May 13 '12 at 21:14
@Guillaume yes, you're right, i'm sorry. – Shine May 13 '12 at 21:17

score 1 · Answer 2 · edited May 13 '12 at 23:28

1

You can use replaceAll method like

String str = "your string";
String a = "    "; // [4 spaces]
String result = str.replaceAll("\t", a);

edited May 13 '12 at 23:28

answered May 13 '12 at 21:38

Arpssss

2 Answers2