Java regex inside brackets

Question

I need to get the following information from an xml file:

    "abridged_cast": [
      {
        "name": "Tom Hanks",
        "characters": ["Woody"]
      },
      {
        "name": "Tim Allen",
        "characters": ["Buzz Lightyear"]
      },
      {
        "name": "Joan Cusack",
        "characters": ["Jessie the Cowgirl"]
      },
      {
        "name": "Don Rickles",
        "characters": ["Mr. Potato Head"]
      },
      {
        "name": "Wallace Shawn",
        "characters": ["Rex"]
      }
    ],

So far I have been able to cut it to:

    "abridged_cast": [
     {
        "name": "Tom Hanks",
        "characters": ["Woody"]

The above is obtained using this regex:

\"abridged_cast\": \\[([^]]+)\\]

I need the regex to extend to the bottom ], but I can't seem to get it to work. I have tried a huge number of variations with no luck.

IMHO using a JSON lib would be a much more straightforward approach — reto
– reto, Commented Jan 7, 2015 at 7:34
Aaack. Please don't use regexes to parse JSON. Use a JSON parser. — ajb
– ajb, Commented Jan 7, 2015 at 7:34

Bohemian · Accepted Answer · 2015-01-07 09:55:56Z

1

This is a bit of a train wreck, but:

"abridged_cast": \[(\s*\{\s*"name": "[a-zA-Z .]+",\s*"characters": \[("[a-zA-Z .]+", )*"[a-zA-Z .]+"\]\s*\}(,(?=\s*\{)|\s))*\s*\],?

See demo.

Since the "characters" field is an array, I've allowed for multiple terms there, an example of which I included in the demo.

Note that I have just shown the raw regex; to use it in java you'll have to escape the quotes and backslashes (which I didn't have the stomach for).

answered Jan 7, 2015 at 9:55

Bohemian♦

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1 Comment

Nox Over a year ago

Worked perfectly. I was trying to do it without making a huge one like this, but it's all the same in the end.

pbespechnyi · Accepted Answer · 2015-01-07 07:46:15Z

0

If you have complete and valid JSON, you can parse it with Jackson or GSON.

This is data classes:

public static class Role {
    private String name;
    private List<String> characters;

    public String getName() {
        return name;
    }

    public void setName(String name) {
        this.name = name;
    }

    public List<String> getCharacters() {
        return characters;
    }

    public void setCharacters(List<String> characters) {
        this.characters = characters;
    }
}

public static class Cast {
    @JsonProperty("abridged_cast")
    private List<Role> roles;

    public List<Role> getRoles() {
        return roles;
    }

    public void setRoles(List<Role> roles) {
        this.roles = roles;
    }
}

And this is how you can parse it:

ObjectMapper om = new ObjectMapper();
Cast cast = om.readValue(s, Cast.class);

where s is your JSON.

answered Jan 7, 2015 at 7:46

pbespechnyi

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1 Comment

Nox Over a year ago

This would work, but my system was built around using regular expressions and was completely built and ready. All I needed was a working regex for that one part.

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