Regex: match all hyphens and replace by spaces for words that contains only letters AND that are NOT inside quotes

Question

This regex: \b([A-z*]+)-(?=[A-z*]+\b)

with this replacement: $1

Applied on:

Jean-Pierre bought "blue-green-red" product-2345 and other blue-red stuff.

Gives me:

Jean Pierre bought "blue green red" product-2345 and other blue red stuff.

While I want:

Jean Pierre bought "blue-green-red" product-2345 and other blue red stuff.

https://regex101.com/r/SJzAaP/1

EDIT:

I am using Clojure (Java)

EDIT 2:

yellow-black-white -> yellow black white

product_a-b -> product_a-b

EDIT 3: Accepted answer translated in Clojure

(clojure.string/replace
 "Jean-Pierre bought \"blue-green-red\" product-2345 and other blue-red-green stuff yellow-black-white product_a-b"
 #"(\"[^\"]*\")|\b([a-zA-Z]+)-(?=[a-zA-Z]+\b)"
 (fn [[s1 s2 s3]] (if s2 s1 (str s3 " "))))

;;=> "Jean Pierre bought \"blue-green-red\" product-2345 and other blue red green stuff yellow black white product_a-b"

Your regex [does not match that string](https://regex101.com/r/HwR9cI/1). — Wiktor Stribiżew, Nov 23 '18 at 20:29
This is actually my best shot: https://regex101.com/r/SJzAaP/1 Just edited question. Thanks! — leontalbot, Nov 23 '18 at 20:33
Ok, just FYI: `[A-z]` does [not only match letters](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/29771901/why-is-this-regex-allowing-a-caret/29771926#29771926). What is your regex flavor? — Wiktor Stribiżew, Nov 23 '18 at 20:34
Use `"[^"]*"(*SKIP)(?!)|\b[a-zA-Z]+\K-(?=[a-zA-Z]+\b)` and replace with a space. See [the regex demo](https://regex101.com/r/SJzAaP/2). — Wiktor Stribiżew, Nov 23 '18 at 20:40
True. How about Java compatible without `(*SKIP)` or `\K` ? Thanks! — leontalbot, Nov 23 '18 at 20:47

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited Nov 24 '18 at 15:33

In Java, you may use something like

String s = "Jean-Pierre bought \"blue-green-red\" product-2345 and other blue-red stuff. yellow-black-white. product_a-b";
StringBuffer result = new StringBuffer();
Matcher m = Pattern.compile("(\"[^\"]*\")|\\b([a-zA-Z]+)-(?=[a-zA-Z]+\\b)").matcher(s);
while (m.find()) {
    if (m.group(1) != null) {
        m.appendReplacement(result, m.group(0));
    } else {
        m.appendReplacement(result, m.group(2) + " ");
    }
}
m.appendTail(result);
System.out.println(result.toString());
// => Jean Pierre bought "blue-green-red" product-2345 and other blue red stuff. yellow black white. product_a-b

See the Java demo.

The regex is

("[^"]*")|\b([a-zA-Z]+)-(?=[a-zA-Z]+\b)

Details

("[^"]*") - Group 1: ", 0+ chars other than " and "
| - or
\b - word boundary -([a-zA-Z]+) - Group 2: 1+ letters (may be replaced with (\p{L}+) to match any letter)
- - a hyphen
(?=[a-zA-Z]+\b) - a positive lookahead that, immediately to the right of the current location, requires 1+ letters and a word boundary.

If Group 1 matches (if (m.group(1) != null)) you just paste the match back into the result. If not, paste back Group 2 value and a space.

Adding clojure code here from the question, too, for better visibility:

(def s "Jean-Pierre bought \"blue-green-red\" product-2345 and other blue-red stuff. yellow-black-white. product_a-b"

(defn append [[g1 g2 g3]] (if g2 g1 (str g3 " ")))

(clojure.string/replace s #"(\"[^\"]*\")|\b([a-zA-Z]+)-(?=[a-zA-Z]+\b)" append)

;;=> "Jean Pierre bought \"blue-green-red\" product-2345 and other blue red stuff. yellow black white. product_a-b"

Thanks! Works fine! Translated your answer in Clojure in my last question edit. — leontalbot, Nov 24 '18 at 01:54

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 23 '18 at 20:48

0

This should work if you don't need to handle too complex cases:

(?: |^)\w+(-)(?![0-9])\w+

This matches any instance of word(hyphen)word that has a space at the beginning or is the beginning of the line (so, the stuff in the quotes will not match because there would be a quote before it, not a space or the beginning of the line).

Let me know if this doesn't work for you. Live demo.

answered Nov 23 '18 at 20:48

miike3459

1,431
2
16
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Hmm, that's working except wouldn't work for `other blue-red-green-yellow stuff` which I want to cover too and I don't want this removed `product_a-b` – leontalbot Nov 23 '18 at 20:52

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 23 '18 at 21:00

0

Try this one

(".*?")|((?<group>\b([A-z*]+))-)

with substitution

${group} $1

You can test it here

answered Nov 23 '18 at 21:00

Alfredo A.

1,697
3
30
43

`bought "blue-green-red" product 2345` should be `bought "blue-green-red" product-2345` – leontalbot Nov 23 '18 at 21:07

Regex: match all hyphens and replace by spaces for words that contains only letters AND that are NOT inside quotes

3 Answers3