Function Description
Java String class replaceAll() method is used to replace all occurrences of matching substring of the string with the given replacement string which matches the specified regular expression.
- Backslashes and dollar signs in the replacement are not being treated as a literal replacement string. To replace these special characters we need to use a double backslash before it.
- If the specified regex finds in the sting, It will return a string resulting from replacing all matching sequence of characters
- If the specified regex is not found in the string, It will return the same string.
- If the specified regex is null, It will throw NullPointerException
- If the specified replacement string is null, It will throw NullPointerException
- If the specified regex is not valid it will throw PatrenSyntaxException
If the specified replacement string is null, It will throw NullPointerException
Method Signature
public String replaceAll(String regex, String replacement)
Parameters
Regex: Regular expression to be matched in the string.
Replacement: A sequence of characters(string) to replace with a matching regular expression.
Return Type
Replaced String
Exception
Throws PatternSyntaxException if regular expression is not valid
Examples of Java String Class replaceAll() Method
Example to replace the string with matching regular expression using Java String Class replaceAll() method in Java code
package com.java.test; public class ExampleStringReplaceAll { public static void main(String[] args) { String str = "1234 RoundTheTech 1245 1256"; System.out.println("Input String : " + str); System.out.println(""); //replace all occurrence of 12 with Hello String relacedString = str.replaceAll("12", "Hello"); System.out.println("After applying replaceAll method: "+relacedString); //replace matching regular expression (match one or more time any digit range 0-9) relacedString = str.replaceAll("[0-9]+", "Welcome"); System.out.println("After replacement string is : "+relacedString); } } Output: Input String : 1234 RoundTheTech 1245 1256 After applying replaceAll method: Hello34 RoundTheTech Hello45 Hello56 After replacement string is : Welcome RoundTheTech Welcome Welcome
Example when PatternSyntaxException has been thrown
package com.java.test; public class ExampleStringReplaceAll { public static void main(String[] args) { String str = "1234 RoundTheTech 1245 1256"; System.out.println("Input String : " + str); System.out.println(""); //replace all occurrence of 12 with Hello String relacedString = str.replaceAll("*", "Hello"); System.out.println("After applying replaceAll method: "+relacedString); //replace matching regular expression (match one or more time any digit range 0-9) relacedString = str.replaceAll("[0-9]+", "Welcome"); System.out.println("Ater replacement string is : "+relacedString); } } Output: Input String : 1234 RoundTheTech 1245 1256 Exception in thread "main" java.util.regex.PatternSyntaxException: Dangling meta character '*' near index 0 * ^ at java.util.regex.Pattern.error(Pattern.java:1957) at java.util.regex.Pattern.sequence(Pattern.java:2125) at java.util.regex.Pattern.expr(Pattern.java:1998) at java.util.regex.Pattern.compile(Pattern.java:1698) at java.util.regex.Pattern.<init>(Pattern.java:1351) at java.util.regex.Pattern.compile(Pattern.java:1028) at java.lang.String.replaceAll(String.java:2223) at com.java.test.ExampleStringReplaceAll.main(ExampleStringReplaceAll.java:10)
Other Methods of String Class
Sequence | Method | Description |
1 | char charAt(int index) | This method is used to return the character of the string at specified index. First character is at index 0 while last is at string length-1 . StringIndexOutOfBounds Exception is thrown if valid index value is not passed. |
2 | int length() | Returns the number of characters count in a string. |
3 | static String format(String format, Object… args) | Return the formatted String. It is a static method and formats the string as per passing format and argument(s). |
4 | static String format(Locale l, String format, Object… args) | Return the formatted String. It is a static method and formats the string as per passing format and argument(s) and locale. |
5 | String substring(int beginIndex) | Returns substring from the given index position to the end index of the string. |
6 | String substring(int beginIndex, int endIndex) | Returns substring from the specified begin index to the specified end index. |
7 | boolean contains(CharSequence s) | Returns boolean value(true/false). It searches the given sequence of characters within the string and returns true/false accordingly. Characters will be case sensitive while searching in string. |
8 | static String join(CharSequence delimiter, CharSequence… elements) | Returns joined string. This method joins each passing String using the specified delimiter. It is a static method. |
9 | static String join(CharSequence delimiter, Iterable<? extends CharSequence> elements) | Returns the joined string. This method joins each passing string object of an iterate object using the specified delimiter and returns the concatenated string. It is a static method. |
10 | boolean equals(Object another) | Returns boolean value(true/false). It checks the equality of string with the passing object. |
11 | boolean isEmpty() | Returns boolean value(true/false). It returns true if the string is empty otherwise returns false. |
12 | String concat(String str) | Returns the concatenating string. It concatenates the passing string at the end of the string. |
13 | String replace(char old, char new) | Return the replaced string. It replaces all occurrences of the specified character with the new character. |
14 | String replace(CharSequence old, CharSequence new) | Return the replaced string. It replaces all occurrences of the specified Character sequence with the specified new Character sequence. |
15 | String replaceFirst(String regex, String replacement) | Returns the replaced string. It replaces the first matching sequence of characters with the replacement string that matches with the given regular expression. |
16 | static boolean equalsIgnoreCase(String another) | Returns the boolean (true/false) value. It compares the passing string with string by ignoring the case. It compares the content irrespective of lowercase or uppercase of the character(s). |
17 | String[] split(String regex) | Returns the array of strings resulting from splitting of the string around matches of the given regular expression. String is breaked into strings from all the matching regular expressions. |
18 | String[] split(String regex, int limit) | Returns the array of strings resulting from splitting of the string around matches of the given regular expression. It breaks the string from all the matching regular expression upto the given limit. |
19 | String intern() | Returns an interned string. This method helps to compare two objects using == operator and checks in a string constant pool. it is faster for comparison. |
20 | int indexOf(int ch) | Returns the index value of first occurrence of the specified character within the string |
21 | int indexOf(int ch, int fromIndex) | Returns the index value of first occurrence of the specified character from the substring starting from specified index |
22 | int indexOf(String substring) | Returns the index value of first occurrence of the specified substring within the string. |
23 | int indexOf(String substring, int fromIndex) | Returns the index value of the first occurrence of the specified string within the substring starting from specified index to end of the string index. |
24 | int lastIndexOf(int ch) | Returns the index value of last occurrence of the specified character |
25 | int lastIndexOf (int ch, int fromIndex) | Returns the index value of last occurrence of the specified character, search starts at given fromIndex. |
26 | int lastIndexOf (String str) | Returns the index value of last occurrence of the specified string. |
27 | int lastIndexOf (String str, int fromIndex | Returns the index value of last occurrence of the specified string, searches start from given fromIndex |
28 | String toLowerCase() | Returns all the characters of the string in lowercase . |
29 | String toLowerCase(Locale l) | Returns all the characters of the string in lowercase using specified locale. |
30 | String toUpperCase() | Returns all the characters of the string in uppercase. |
31 | String toUpperCase(Locale l) | Returns all the characters of the string in uppercase using specified locale. |
32 | String trim() | Returns the string after removing the white space from the beginning and end of the string. |
33 | static String valueOf(int value) | Return the converted string. It converts the objects and all primitive types of values into string. It is a static method. |
In this article, we learned all about replaceAll() method of String class with examples. Apart from replaceAll() method we got an idea about other String methods too. We will come up with more articles explaining other String methods description with examples .For more details please click on the respective methods link.