How to pass escaped [aabb] to replaceAll() method in java?

Question

I want to replace a string "[aabb]" in a txt file, but if I wanted to use replaceAll("[aabb]", "x"); method for this replacement, java sees that as a regular expression. How can I escape "[aabb]" string?

Use Pattern.quote in general case, or "\\\[aabb\\\]" for your particular case. — Alex Sveshnikov, Mar 17 '21 at 21:06
Does this answer your question? [Escaping special characters in Java Regular Expressions](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/10664434/escaping-special-characters-in-java-regular-expressions) — Janez Kuhar, Mar 17 '21 at 21:07

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 17 '21 at 21:06

3

Try one of these -

Pattern.quote("[aabb]")

OR make the string "\\Q[aabb]\\E" [remember \ needs to be quoted for Java strings].

As well as lots of great answers on SO - go to the javadoc for Pattern

answered Mar 17 '21 at 21:06

Mr R

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score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 17 '21 at 21:08

You need to escape [ and ] as they are the meta-characters used to specify character classes i.e. if you do not escape them, the regex engine will treat [aabb] as one of the characters within the square bracket.

Demo:

public class Main {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        String str = "Hello [aabb] World";
        str = str.replaceAll("\\[aabb\\]", "x");
        System.out.println(str);
    }
}

Output:

Hello x World

score 2 · Answer 3 · edited Mar 18 '21 at 01:05

2

You can use replaceAll(Pattern.quote("[aabb]"),"x")

edited Mar 18 '21 at 01:05

Frightera

3,860
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answered Mar 17 '21 at 21:10

olz

116
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3

How to pass escaped [aabb] to replaceAll() method in java?

3 Answers3