Basically, this is what I'm trying to do is this:
String s = "to+go+la";
s.replaceAll("to+go", "");
which should return "+la"
I know that if I were to just replace the + signs, I would use \\+, but I'm not sure what I what to do when the signs are embeded. Is the best answer to just remove them from both? This will work for my purposes, but it seems like a duct tape answer.
... but it seems like a duct tape answer.
It seems like a "duct tape" answer because you haven't learned why you need to use \+ when you are replacing just a "+" character.
The answer is that "+" is a regex metacharacter. It means "the character or group before this may appear one or more times".
If you want "to+go" to be treated as a literal String (rather than a regex), then one way to do this is to "regex quote" it; e.g.
s.replaceAll(Pattern.quote("to+go"), "");
On the other hand, if the + characters are entirely irrelevant, then removing them would also work ...
Your case doesn't call for a regex, so it is inappropriate to use it. It's both slower and more cumbersome. Use a plain and simple replace instead of replaceAll and you won't need to escape anything:
String s = "to+go+la".replace("to+go", "");
How about this:
String input = "to+go+la";
String result = input.replaceAll("to\\+go","");
System.out.println(result);
Why is this a bad pattern? Do you by embedded mean something like this?
String input = "to+++go+la";
If so then the only thing that will change is the pattern:
String result = input.replaceAll("to(\\+)+go","");
