How to split the sentence neatly

[Nakata kokuyo]

Good day,

Appreciated your help and i would like to know how can i split below input string into expected output?

Take note on input string as between 77973 and 117181 have multiple spaces, whereas Revenue and 77973 have single space only.

I have try using outputStr.split(" "); and doesn't split it neatly

Revenue 77,973        117,181      417,056      450,425     

Expecting output

Revenue 
77,973        
117,181      
417,056      
450,425     

[Tim Cooke]

I assume by "doesn't split it neatly" you mean that you have a bunch of whitespace around each item?

If so, then you can split on a singe whitespace then trim each item to get rid of the extra whitespace.

[Jelle Klap]

Or as an alternative to what Tim suggested, you could split using a regular expression that matches one or more whitespace characters.

[Sergej Smoljanov]

http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/util/regex/Pattern.html
https://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/essential/regex/index.html
this may help understand regular expressions.

[Nakata kokuyo]

Thanks everyone, i trying below and seem not matching, anyone can shed the light ?

 String input = "Total comprehensive income for the year 12,464        28,164        123,601      114,722      ";
 String regEx = "^Total comprehensive income for the year\\s+\\d\\s+\\d\\s+\\d\\s+\\d\\s+";

[Sergej Smoljanov]

You need delimiter that is space, but not followed letter [^A-z].

public class Test {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        String input = "abaa";
         String pattern ="^a";
        for(String val: input.split(pattern)){
            System.out.println(val);
        }
    }
}

^a - is the first a, because

^ The beginning of a line

http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/util/regex/Pattern.html
but you can use negations this way:

public class Test {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        String input = "abbaa";
         String pattern ="[^a]+";
        for(String val: input.split(pattern)){
            System.out.println(val);
        }
    }
}

this time [^a]+ mean one or more occurrence of letter that not a, pay note that if you use [^ab] delimiter is not a or not b.

also you may try find for than become more interesting

String input = "Total comprehensive income for the 1 year 12,464        28,164        123,601      114,722      ";

[Nakata kokuyo]

Thanks buddy, i figure out using this way to achieved it

 String regEx = "[azA-Z]+.*\\d+.*";

Now, when i try to split it using

 String[] resultStr = input.split("\\s+");

the number is split in right way, but the wording "Total comprehensive income .." which contain whitespace will split too

How can i handle it ?

Below is the full snippet :

 String input = "Total comprehensive income for the year 12,464        28,164        123,601      114,722     ";
String regEx = "[azA-Z]+.*\\d+.*";

Pattern p = Pattern.compile(regEx);
        Matcher m = p.matcher(input);
        log.debug("input string match? {}",m.matches() );
        if(m.matches()){
            String[] resultStr = input.split("\\s+");
            for(String str : resultStr){
                log.debug("result str : {}", str);
            }
        }

[Sergej Smoljanov]

String input = "Total comprehensive income for the year 12,464        28,164        123,601      114,722      ";
String pattern ="\\s+[^A-z]";
for(String val: input.split(pattern)){
    System.out.println(val);
}

i mean something like this one.

[Henry Wong]

Nakata kokuyo wrote:Thanks buddy, i figure out using this way to achieved it

 String regEx = "[azA-Z]+.*\\d+.*";

Well, it does match, but something tells me that it doesn't match it in a way that you think it does. For this input ...

 String input = "Total comprehensive income for the year 12,464        28,164        123,601      114,722     ";

The "[azA-Z]+" part of the regex only matches the first letter -- specifically the letter "T". Notice that it is not matching the small letters, except of the letters "a" and "z" only.

The next part of the regex, ie. ".*", matches the majority of the input -- specifically, it matches "otal comprehensive income for the year 12,464 28,164 123,601 114,72".... (spaces not shown due to lack of code tags)

The "\\d+" part of the regex only matches the last digit (ie. the last "2" from the last number). The reason for this is that the previous portion is greedy, and match the maximum possible, giving only the minimum of a single digit for this sub match.

And finally, the last ".*" part of the regex matches the remaining spaces.

Henry

[Nakata kokuyo]

Hi Henry,

Thanks for pointing out !

Do you means the first part i should place this

[azA-Z]+ --> [a-zA-Z]

second part, i just remain ?

third part, I have no idea how i can match, could you please share me more ?

[Nakata kokuyo]

Thanks and will try it later !

Sergej Smoljanov wrote:

String input = "Total comprehensive income for the year 12,464        28,164        123,601      114,722      ";
String pattern ="\\s+[^A-z]";
for(String val: input.split(pattern)){
    System.out.println(val);
}

i mean something like this one.

[Sergej Smoljanov]

also look:
Special constructs (named-capturing and non-capturing)
http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/util/regex/Pattern.html
for example (?!

        String input = "Total comprehensive income for the 1 year 12,464        28,164        123,601      114,722      ";
        
       
        String pattern = "\\s+(?!\\w)";
        for (String val : input.split(pattern)) {
            System.out.println(val);
        }

this time: (?! - mean look ahead and fint that not followed by \\w, you may combine inside bracket what you not want encounter by using or: |

[Henry Wong]

Sergej Smoljanov wrote:

String input = "Total comprehensive income for the year 12,464        28,164        123,601      114,722      ";
String pattern ="\\s+[^A-z]";
for(String val: input.split(pattern)){
    System.out.println(val);
}

i mean something like this one.

First of all, I am not a fan of using the "[A-z]" pattern to represent the letters. There are characters between the upper case and lower case letters, and they will be matched too. A pattern like "[A-Za-z] is more accurate and easier to read.

Second, and this is more important, this will *NOT* work. The delimiter will grab a digit when splitting -- so the numbers will all lose their first digit.

Henry

[Sergej Smoljanov]

this will *NOT* work

You right, sorry. Now also trying find decision.

[Sergej Smoljanov]

         String input = "Total comprehensive income for the 1 year 12,464        28,164        123,601      114,722      ";
        String pattern = "\\s+(?=\\d+,)";
        for (String val : input.split(pattern)) {
            System.out.println(val);
        }

This time it work (hope so)

There are characters between the upper case and lower case letters, and they will be matched too

thanks for this notion.

[Nakata kokuyo]

Thanks everyone , i using below to split and it is working great, appreciated your guidance everyone especially to Sergej and Henry

String pattern = "\\s+(?=\\d+,\\d+)";

[Nakata kokuyo]

Question :

Does "?=" means positive number only ?

(?=X)	X, via zero-width positive lookahead

[Sergej Smoljanov]

zero-width positive lookahead - (zero-width) mean that this part will not included in result, positive - that must much, lookahead - lookahead .
if you want include '-' minus to result you must write this like "\\s+(?=-?\\d+,)" - that mean that i look for one or more space, after this space(spaces) must be expression that i will not include in my finding this expression is: zero or one'-' (minus) "-?" that followed one or more digit that followed exactly one ','
You express \\d is [0123456789] (one of this)
if you want find '-' you must specified this. also if you want use others like '(' or '+' you must specify this.
http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/util/regex/Pattern.html
this has good explanation of java regex, when i try answer your question i try this source.
(?!X) X, via zero-width negative lookahead, also this mean that expression followed by you try found is not included but must be not mach to X