retain apostrophe in Collection object

[verduka fox]

I have a TreeSet of values. One value contains an apostrophe. When the contents of the TreeSet are listed, instead of an apostrophe, it displays another character. I tried changing the TreeSet to an ArrayList, with the same result. How do I get around this?

            Set names = new TreeSet();
            //List names = new ArrayList();
            names.add("IV’S,"); // value between 'V' and 'S' is typed as an apostrophe - web display is altering this
            names.add("DRAINS");
            names.add("TUBES");
            
            Iterator iterator = names.iterator();
            while (iterator.hasNext()) 
            {
               System.out.println("\t" + iterator.next());
            }

results:

DRAINS
IVÆS,
TUBES

I really need the output to match what I have listed above. Any tips are greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[fred rosenberger]

This doesn't address your question, but does the IV own something? That's the only reason I can see why you would type "IV'S", as in "The IV's line to the bag".

If you are talking about more than one IV, it would be "IVs" or "IVS".

[Campbell Ritchie]

What is the Unicode value of that apostrophe? Is it \u0027 (') or \u2019 (’)? If you simply push the key, you usually get \u0027.

[Eli Wood]

Campbell Ritchie wrote:What is the Unicode value of that apostrophe? Is it \u0027 (') or \u2019 (’)? If you simply push the key, you usually get \u0027.

You may be able to just use the Unicode value of the troublesome value. For example, if it's \u2019 your code would look like this:

        Set names = new TreeSet();  
        //List names = new ArrayList();  
        names.add("IV\u2019S,"); // value between 'V' and 'S' is typed as an apostrophe - web display is altering this  
        names.add("DRAINS");  
        names.add("TUBES");  
          
        Iterator iterator = names.iterator();  
        while (iterator.hasNext())   
        {  
           System.out.println("\t" + iterator.next());  
        }  

[verduka fox]

fred rosenberger: Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately, this data is dictated by the system. The presence of the apostrophe in the data is outside of my control. I have to accommodate it.

Eli Wood and Campbell Ritchie: I will be loading these values dynamically, so I won't be able replace the apostrophe with the Unicode value. I tried to do this programmatically:

String testName = "IV’S,";
Pattern p = Pattern.compile("Æ");
Matcher m = p.matcher(testName);
if(m.find()) 
{
testName = m.replaceAll("\u0027");
}
System.out.println("testName: " + testName);

which prints:

IVÆS,

so this didn't work. Did I use the regex above incorrectly?

Are there any other ways to make this work? This is urgent, so I appreciate your responses.

[Rob Spoor]

I blame your command prompt. Most shells, including Windows' command prompt, can't display most characters that aren't extended ASCII.

verduka fox wrote:This is urgent

Please EaseUp. There is no "urgent" around here.

[Paul Clapham]

verduka fox wrote:Are there any other ways to make this work? This is urgent, so I appreciate your responses.

At the command line? No. If you're writing a command-line application and you have to support characters outside of whatever your shell supports, you're out of luck.

But are you writing a command-line application? If you aren't, then don't use the shell to do that sort of testing. It just confuses things. Use whatever medium the application is targeting (Swing GUI, web app, whatever) to do that testing.

[Campbell Ritchie]

Rob Spoor wrote: . . . Most shells, including Windows' command prompt, can't display most characters that aren't extended ASCII. . . . .

That is why I thought they were using \u2019. But that would surely come out on Windows® as ?

Æ is \u00c6, and I can't find any sort of apostrophe that is C6, not even in EBCDIC.

[Rob Spoor]

Campbell Ritchie wrote:

Rob Spoor wrote: . . . Most shells, including Windows' command prompt, can't display most characters that aren't extended ASCII. . . . .

That is why I thought they were using \u2019. But that would surely come out on Windows® as ?

I wouldn't count on that. Applications like Word can handle it, Windows' command prompt is quite limited in what it can display. \u2019 is definitely not one of them.

Æ is \u00c6, and I can't find any sort of apostrophe that is C6, not even in EBCDIC.

When Windows' command can't print out the character, it can print out anything. For instance, if I print out both \u2019 and \u00c6 I get Æ and ã. Go figure!

[verduka fox]

My code is actually running on WebSphere Portal on AIX. When it runs there, the apostrophe is displayed as a question mark '?' instead of an apostrophe. When I'm debugging this on Windows, Windows displays the apostrophe as Æ. In either case, the apostrophe I specify in the code is not displayed as such. How do I get the code when run to display what is actually written in the code?

PS Sorry for the urgent comment. I didn't mean to upset anyone.

[William Brogden]

I will be loading these values dynamically, so I won't be able replace the apostrophe with the Unicode value.

You should be able to replace those dispicable MS Word "smart" punctuation marks dynamically with regex.

I would use an editor capable to displaying hex values to see exactly what the bogus apostrophe code is.

Looking back at how I solved the problem, I used the String replace function - which is faster - like this:

   // replace Word processor smart quotes and ' with ascii 
static String fixWordSmart( String s ){
    if(  s == null ||
         s.length() == 0 ){
           return s ;
    }
    s = s.replace( (char)145, (char)'\'');
    s = s.replace( (char)8216, (char)'\''); // left single quote
    s = s.replace( (char)146, (char)'\'');
    s = s.replace( (char)8217, (char)'\''); // right single quote
    s = s.replace( (char)147, (char)'\"');
    s = s.replace( (char)148, (char)'\"');
    s = s.replace( (char)8220, (char)'\"'); // left double
    s = s.replace( (char)8221, (char)'\"'); // right double
    s = s.replace( (char)8211, (char)'-' ); // em dash??    
    s = s.replace( (char)149,  (char)'*' ); // bullet
    s = s.replace( (char)8226, (char)'*' ); // bullet (one of many)
    return s.replace( (char)150, (char)'-' );
  }

When you find out what the "apostrophe" code is, just add a line.

Bill

[Campbell Ritchie]

Display it on a Java™ platform.

javax.swing.JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null,
   String.format("These are apostrophes: %c %c, and this is a ligature: %c",
         (char)0x27, (char)0x2019, (char)0xc6));

[Rob Spoor]

William Brogden wrote:Looking back at how I solved the problem, I used the String replace function - which is faster - like this:

I would actually not use String.replace but loop. Your code loops over the String 12 times, potentially creating 12 new Strings. One single loop will suffice:

   // replace Word processor smart quotes and ' with ascii 
static String fixWordSmart( String s ){
    if (s == null || s.length() == 0)
    {
        return s ;
    }
    boolean changed = false;
    char[] value = s.toCharArray();
    for (int i = 0; i < value.length; i++)
    {
        switch (value[i])
        {
            case 145: // fall through
            case 8216: // left single quote, fall through
            case 146: // fall through
            case 8217: // right single quote
                value[i] = '\'';
                changed = true;
                break;
            case 147: // fall through
            case 148: // fall through
            case 8220: // left double quotes, fall through
            case 8221: // right double quotes
                value[i] = '"'; // no need to escape " inside ''
                changed = true;
                break;
            case 150: // fall through
            case 8211: // em dash
                value[i] = '-';
                changed = true;
                break;
            case 149: // bullet, fall through
            case 8226: // bullet (one of many)
                value[i] = '*';
                changed = true;
                break;
            // default: do nothing
        }
    }
    return (changed ? new String(value) : s);
}

As in your code, replacing another character is easy: just add one case statement with replacement.