Read a certain part of a String (Java)

Question

I want to read a certain part of a String in this String:

    <test>3:35</test>

The part I want to read is 3:35, but I just can't seem to figure it out. What I have currently is:

    s.skip("<test>");
    t = s.next();
    s.skip("</test>");

But of course, all I get back is 3:35</test> because I skip after t = s.next()

Can anyone explain the way too easy solution I'm probably not seeing here?

In the long run, the way too easy solution is to use an XML parser. — Tim Biegeleisen, Oct 23 '17 at 11:11
And ugly solution could be to set the delimiter to use `` or `` as delimiter... but go with an XML reader instead. — AxelH, Oct 23 '17 at 11:18
Thank you all for the suggestions, I will try to use an XML parser, is there any good guide on XML parsers? they are new to me. — Wolf Bubberman, Oct 23 '17 at 11:25
Use the first answer here https://stackoverflow.com/questions/562160 to get a Document, then traverse it — fafl, Oct 23 '17 at 12:23

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 23 '17 at 11:14

Use Regex:

Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile("<test>(.+?)</test>");
Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher("<test>3:35</test>");
matcher.find();
System.out.println(matcher.group(1)); // Output: 3:35

P.S: Regex are not the best tool to do this kind of computation, in long term an XML parser should be used.

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 23 '17 at 11:21

0

If you don't want to use regex or XML parser, you can modify your solution like this -

s.skip("<test>");
    t = s.next();
   t = t.substring(0,t.indexOf("</test>"));

answered Oct 23 '17 at 11:21

Sachin Aggarwal

1,095
8
17

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 23 '17 at 11:27

Using Regex as Sachin mentioned, or by using replaceall():

    String str = "<test>3:35</test>"; 
    str = str.replaceAll("<test>", ""); 
    str = str.replaceAll("</test>", ""); 
    System.out.println(str);

Better to make a function which takes the original string and the strings that you want to replace as an argument, then return the desired value...

Read a certain part of a String (Java)

3 Answers3