Convert java string to string compatible with a regex in replaceAll

Question

Is there a library or any easy way to convert a string and make sure its compatible as a regex to look for and replace in another string. So if the string is "$money" it would get converted to "\$money". I tried using StringEscapeUtil.escape but it doesn't work with characters such as $.

Reimeus · Accepted Answer · 2014-01-14T03:32:37.480

12

You can use Pattern.quote("$money").

edited Jan 14 '14 at 03:32

answered Jun 20 '13 at 22:49

Reimeus

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score 7 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 20 '13 at 22:55

7

Prepend the \\Q in front of the string, and \\E at the end:

"\\Q$money\\E"

This tells the regex engine that the string between \Q and \E must be interpreted verbatim, ignoring any metacharacters that it may contain.

answered Jun 20 '13 at 22:55

Sergey Kalinichenko

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Thank you! Apparently this is what Pattern.quote() does. – Kevin Colin Jun 20 '13 at 23:04
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But what if the String contains `\\E` in it ? – 27px Jan 16 '21 at 15:05

Convert java string to string compatible with a regex in replaceAll

2 Answers2