split using metacharacters

[Marko Debac]

Hi,
i have a question about regex and pattern matcher:

I need to split some string using regex;
lets say that dots in "sentence" represent lots of caracter beetwen

 String sentence = "a.. ..b.. ..c.. ..d";
 
         String [] tokens = new String[];
         String paternSplitter ="[B]\\.*?c[/B]";         
              
         tokens = sentence.split(paternSplitter,2);           
         System.out.println(tokens[1]);

with these I got split on every "c", but I need to concatenate a fix prefix "b" to be a part of the splitter.

I need to have splitter exactly like this "b.. ..c". b and c are always fixed so we must use only them.

Thanks.

[Arijit Daripa]

You are not so clear that everybody can get you. And I am very sorry to say that I couldn't get you.
Please write a demo INPUT and your desired OUTPUT. Like......

Input : a.. ..b.. .c..d.c.b..ac..d
Output: a.. ..
        ..d.c.
        ..d

[Marko Debac]

String sentence = "a.. ..b.. ..c.. ..d.. ..e";

And at the end I need to have two strings given with split method:

String[] result = new String [];

result[0] // must be "a.. .."
result[1] // must be ".. ..d.. ..e"
// so as we see splitter must be "b.. ..c"
// I have trouble to define those dots between which can be a lots of various characters

[Henry Wong]

// I have trouble to define those dots between which can be a lots of various characters

Here is the issue. What is those dots supposed to represent? If they are dots, then you can split like with ... "b\\.\\. \\.\\.c". If they are to represent any number of any characters, then you can split like with ... "b.*?c". We need some more examples, which doesn't use dots to clarify.

Henry

[Arijit Daripa]

Hey Dude here goes your class

public class ToMarkoFromArijit{
    public static void main(String[] args){
        String sentence = "a.. ..b.. .c..d.c.b..ac..d";
        String [] tokens = new String[20];
        String paternSplitter ="b.*?c";         
        tokens = sentence.split(paternSplitter);           
        for(String s: tokens)
        System.out.println(s);
    }
}

Are you Online?
If yes, compile and acknowledge me whether you get the desired result.

[Arijit Daripa]

OOPS! Henry has beaten me by 6 minutes. Great job Henry.

[venkatesh badrinathan]

Thanks for everyone, but a very silly question out here,

tokens = sentence.split(paternSplitter);

how does the 'tokens' variable gets incremented everytime when a new token is found in the sentence???(we did not use any loop to mention it...)???
please explain

[Marko Debac]

No, you didnt understand me; dots between b and c can representing lots of characters variable length; so it can be ..bsdgc.. or ..b vh tt 234 hjk c.. but b and c are always there and there are fixed.

I have tryed with this b\\w*c (in string) but it isnt..

thanks

[Henry Wong]

I have tryed with this b\\w*c (in string) but it isnt..

I am wondering why didn't you try "b.*?c", which was recommended by at least two people on this thread.

Henry