Replace all method throws PatternSyntaxException

Question

look at the following code:

String comment = "1)FCR pick up in Hong Kong2)Local charges will be paiy in Hong Kong & in HK$.3)Booking:[email protected])FCR&DOC:[email protected]:00852-23021977Fax:00852-2730217Transaction865320submittedVirginiaWong(T1281954U005) and Status is INCMP  on 10-JUN-11 11.28.45.764386 PM -05:00";
        //comment = comment.replaceAll("\\)", "\\\\)");
        //comment = comment.replaceAll("\\(", "\\\\(");
          if(comment == null || comment.length() < 100)
          {
            System.out.println();  
          }
         String[] strArray =    comment.split(" ");
         for (int i = 0; i < strArray.length; i++) 
           { 
              if(strArray[i].length() > 100)
               {
                 int iter = strArray[i].length() / 100 ;
                 int count = 100 ;
                 int initCount = 0 ;
                 String strReplace = null;

                    for(int j =0 ; j< iter ; j++)
                    {
                      strReplace = strArray[i].substring(initCount ,count); 

                      String strToReplace =  strReplace + "\n" ;
                      comment = comment.replaceAll(strReplace,strToReplace);
                      //comment = comment.replaceAll("\\)", "\\\\)");
                      //comment = comment.replaceAll("\\(", "\\\\(");
                      //comment = comment.replaceAll("\\\\", "");
                      System.out.println(comment);
                      System.out.println(comment.contains("\n"));   
                      initCount = count; //+1 ; 
                      count = count +100 ;
                    } 

                }   

            }
    }

When I run I get the following exception:

Exception in thread "main" java.util.regex.PatternSyntaxException: Unmatched closing ')'
near index 4 HK$.3)Booking:[email protected])FCR&DOC:[email protected]:00852-
23021977Fax:00852-2

From my understanding I have to escape the parantheses'(',')', I tried to do this(look at the commented part in the code)there was nt any exception but the newline I am appending to the string doesn't seem to appear.

Maybe you can express this as a unit test to show what you expect the result to be. — Edward Samson
– Edward Samson, Commented Jul 30, 2012 at 5:43
@Pramod Kumar The purpose of the code is it will split a string with whitespace as delimiter and if any of the string split array exceeds 100 chars,I insert a newline(\n) and replace this new string with the original.What I meant was when you remove the comments in the above code,I dont get the exception but the newline(\n) am appending doesnt appear when I print the string finally. — Srini
– Srini, Commented Jul 30, 2012 at 5:49

aioobe · Accepted Answer · 2012-07-30 05:46:00Z

4

String.replaceAll usess regular expressions for the first argument, and characters such as ) have special meaning when interpreted as regular expressions.

Try String.replace instead. (It still replaces all occurrences of the given substring.)

answered Jul 30, 2012 at 5:46

aioobe

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