replaceAll error

Question

This is my regex. I want to find the opening and closing parentheses and replace them with "\(" and "\)".

word = word.replaceAll(Pattern.quote("("), "\\" + "(").replaceAll(Pattern.quote(")"), "\\" + ")");

This is the output if word = "word)":

New word is: word)

As you can see it didn't change a thing.

Why do you need to use regular expressions for a simple replacement like this? Just use the normal replace function and spare yourself some trouble: `word.replace("(", "\\" + "(").replace(")", "\\" + ")");` — OH GOD SPIDERS, Oct 09 '17 at 09:24

YCF_L · Accepted Answer · 2017-10-09T09:31:14.343

1

Try to use \\\\ like this :

word = word.replaceAll(Pattern.quote("("), "\\\\" + "(")
        .replaceAll(Pattern.quote(")"), "\\\\" + ")");

or without Pattern.quote :

word = word.replaceAll("\\(", "\\\\(").replaceAll("\\)", "\\\\)");

or instead in your case you can just use replace :

word = word.replace("(", "\\(").replace(")", "\\)");

edited Oct 09 '17 at 09:31

answered Oct 09 '17 at 09:26

YCF_L

score 0 · Answer 2 · edited Oct 09 '17 at 11:37

0

Two answers worked:

word.replace("(", "\\" + "(").replace(")", "\\" + ")"); – OH GOD SPIDERS

and

replacing \\ with \\\\ in the replaceAll - YCF_L.

edited Oct 09 '17 at 11:37

Szymon Stepniak

answered Oct 09 '17 at 09:28

Eymeric G

2 Answers2