Parsing a string using regex

Question

I'm trying to slpit the string /home/user/test.dat I use String[] split = file.split("(?!.*/)"); but split[1] only returns the first character instead of the whole file name. How would I edit my regex so that it returns everything past the last forward slash?

I expect `test.dat` while split[0] already returns everything before it — Peter Bucher, Nov 23 '15 at 03:32
Do you need to use regex here? There may be better tools go get file name. — Pshemo, Nov 23 '15 at 03:32
Refresh page with this post and see linked duplicate at top. — Pshemo, Nov 23 '15 at 03:34

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 23 '15 at 03:34

2

Unless there's some compelling reason to use a regular expression, I would use the simple String.lastIndexOf(int). Something like,

String file = "/a/b/c/d/e/test.dat";
int afterSlash = file.lastIndexOf('/');
if (afterSlash > -1) {
    file = file.substring(afterSlash + 1);
}
System.out.println(file);

Output of above being (the requested)

test.dat

answered Nov 23 '15 at 03:34

Elliott Frisch

198,278
20
158
249

1

Yes ...if you want only file name than rather go with lastIndexOf() method ... – Naruto Nov 23 '15 at 03:36

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 23 '15 at 03:33

Regex

\/((\w+)\.(\w+))$

Regular expression visualization

Debuggex Demo

However, since you are using Java simply load the string into the File helper which can pull out the filename:

Java

Path p = Paths.get("C:\\Hello\\AnotherFolder\\The File Name.PDF");
String file = p.getFileName().toString();

Parsing a string using regex

2 Answers2