Java Find and Replace String using Regex

Question

I need to specify the string find in Regex format, in order that head tag can be found whatever its format is like <html > or <html> or < html>. How to specify the find string in Regex format?

String source = "<html >The quick brown fox jumps over the brown lazy dog.</html >";
String find = "<html>";
String replace = "";        
Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile(find);        
Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(source);        
String output = matcher.replaceAll(replace); 
System.out.println("Source = " + source);
System.out.println("Output = " + output);

Is ` --> >` valid html? – Paul Tomblin Sep 07 '12 at 12:10 — Paul Tomblin, Sep 07 '12 at 12:10

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 07 '12 at 12:08

3

Although you could go round your problem by doing <\\s*html\\s*>, you should not process HTML with regex. Obligatory link.

The \\s* denotes 0 or more white spaces.

answered Sep 07 '12 at 12:08

npinti

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score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 07 '12 at 12:11

1

Do not attempt to parse HTML using regex! Try reading about XPath. Very helpful. Although XPath will try by default to validate your document, but you can try HtmlCleaner to make it valid.

answered Sep 07 '12 at 12:11

Andrei Sfat

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score 0 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:12

0

To extract text inside your tags use something like

String source = "<html >The quick brown fox jumps over the brown lazy dog.</html >";
System.out.println( source.replaceAll( "^<\\s*html\\s*>(.*)<\\s*\\/html\\s*>$", "$1" ) );
// output is:
// The quick brown fox jumps over the brown lazy dog.

But try to avoid parsing of html by regexps. Read this topic.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:12

Community

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answered Sep 07 '12 at 12:09

stemm

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Biswajit · Answer 4 · 2012-09-18T11:18:23.127

This example may be helpful to you.

String source = "<html >The quick brown fox jumps over the brown lazy dog.</html >";

        String find = "\\<.*?>";
        String replace = "";        
        Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile(find);        
        Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(source);        
        String output = matcher.replaceAll(replace); 
        System.out.println("Source = " + source);
        System.out.println("Output = " + output);

Java Find and Replace String using Regex

4 Answers4