Replacing special character from a String in Android

Question

I have a String as folder/File Name. I am creating folder , file with that string. This string may or may not contain some charters which may not allow to create desired folder or file

e.g

String folder = "ArslanFolder 20/01/2013";

So I want to remove these characters with "_"

Here are characters

private static final String ReservedChars = "|\?*<\":>+[]/'";

What will be the regular expression for that? I know replaceAll(); but I want to create a regular expression for that.

@Arslan: Not in the folder name, in the `ReservedChars` string. — jlordo, Jan 23 '13 at 13:43

score 16 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 06 '14 at 10:55

16

Use this code:

String folder = "ArslanFolder 20/01/2013 ? / '";
String result = folder.replaceAll("[|?*<\":>+\\[\\]/']", "_");

And the result would be:

ArslanFolder 20_01_2013 _ _ _

you didn't say that space should be replaced, so spaces are there... you could add it if it is necessary to be done.

edited Jun 06 '14 at 10:55

Sufian

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answered Jan 23 '13 at 13:39

Kent

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Why have you escaped everything in character class? – Rohit Jain Jan 23 '13 at 13:47

score 1 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:48

1

I used one of this:

String alphaOnly = input.replaceAll("[^\\p{Alpha}]+","");
String alphaAndDigits = input.replaceAll("[^\\p{Alpha}\\p{Digit}]+","");

See this link: Replace special characters

edited May 23 '17 at 11:48

Community

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answered Nov 04 '15 at 08:55

Andrea Aranguren

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score 0 · Answer 3 · edited Jan 23 '13 at 13:36

0

Try this :

replaceAll("[\\W]", "_");

It will replace all non alphanumeric characters with underscore

edited Jan 23 '13 at 13:36

jlordo

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answered Jan 23 '13 at 13:35

Renjith

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But I need to replace only specific set of characters – Arslan Anwar Jan 23 '13 at 13:37

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Apr 23 '21 at 19:36

This is correct solution:

String result = inputString.replaceAll("[\\\\|?\u0000*<\":>+\\[\\]/']", "_");

Kent answer is good, but he isnt include characters NUL and \.

Also, this is a secure solution for replacing/renaming text of user-input file names, for example.

Replacing special character from a String in Android

4 Answers4