Java String find and replace a part

Question

I have an input string which looks something like this.

String str="abc + abcd * abcde"

I wish to replace

abc with "xyz".

When I try replace function of string it replaces all the occurences of abc.

I should have the final string as

String str="xyz + abcd * abcde"

It is not necessary that "abc" will be first word in String.

I need to replace only that word which contains "abc" and not the one which contains "abcd". If I use "replace", it will replace all occurences of abc which is not required.

"abc" will have operator after abc. Something like this "abc+abcd+abcde"

Is there any elegant solution to this problem ?

Can you show your code? We cannot tell the problem without seeing your code — Thiyagu
– Thiyagu, Commented Jun 6, 2018 at 8:52
Try to generalize what the difference between the targeted abc is from the other occurrences... — f1sh
– f1sh, Commented Jun 6, 2018 at 8:53
you'll need to be more clear about your expectations. is it always the first "abc" you want to replace? is it every "abc" that is followed by a space? do you want to keep all instances of "abc" that are followed by another char? — Stultuske
– Stultuske, Commented Jun 6, 2018 at 8:54
@f1sh first word in String, and first occurence of "abc" in String is not the same. — Stultuske
– Stultuske, Commented Jun 6, 2018 at 9:05

Radiodef · Accepted Answer · 2018-06-06 14:53:02Z

0

You can use the regex word boundary matcher \b for this:

str = str.replaceAll("\\babc\\b", "xyz");

See https://www.regular-expressions.info/wordboundaries.html

answered Jun 6, 2018 at 14:53

community wiki

Radiodef

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