string.replaceall() and java.util.regex.Pattern/Matcher

[joe nesbitt]

Hi all,

i have a regex that checks if the content between the 5th and 6th occurence of | is "" as follows:

(TEST\\|[||]*\\|\\|[||]*\\|[||]*\\|)\"\"")

It works fine with string.replaceall(). But when same pattern is used with java.util.regex.Pattern and Matcher classes, Matcher.find() is always false. Does it mean that the above regex must not contain the match part, I tried that but in vain.

Could someone, show me as how to use the above regex in combination of Pattern and Match classes.

Thanks in advance.

[Rob Spoor]

String.replaceAll uses Pattern/Matcher in the background:

    public String replaceAll(String regex, String replacement) {
	return Pattern.compile(regex).matcher(this).replaceAll(replacement);
    }

In Matcher:

    public String replaceAll(String replacement) {
        reset();
        boolean result = find();
        if (result) {
            StringBuffer sb = new StringBuffer();
            do {
                appendReplacement(sb, replacement);
                result = find();
            } while (result);
            appendTail(sb);
            return sb.toString();
        }
        return text.toString();
    }

So if String.replaceAll is working, then you're doing something wrong when using Pattern/Matcher.