Working with strings in Java using StringBuilder, regex, Pattern, and Matcher.

Open jshell and try this:

jshell> var name = "Homer";
jshell> name.charAt(0);
==> 'H'

Try to replace the letter H with the number 1

jshell> name.charAt(0) = 1;
|  Error:
|  unexpected type
|    required: variable
|    found:    value
|  name.charAt(0) = 1;
|  ^------------^

It cannot be done because the variable name is a string and strings are immutable.

Using StringBuilder in Java

Now try using the StringBuilder class which creates a String object that can be changed.

jshell> StringBuilder nameSB = new StringBuilder();
nameSB ==>

jshell> nameSB.append(name);
==> Homer

Now replace the letter H with the number 1. The method wants the start point (inclusive), end point (exclusive), and string to replace.

jshell> nameSB.replace(0, 1, "1");
==> 1omer

jshell> nameSB
nameSB ==> 1omer

The variable nameSB is a StringBuilder object. Then convert to string:

jshell> var name = nameSB.toString();
name ==> "1omer"

Using StringBuilder in Android

Check if an email address has a valid format.

Let’s say that the email address is captured from the android app:

textEmail = (EditText) findViewById(R.id.emailID);

Then the string is assigned to a variable:

String email = textEmail.getText().toString();

I know that there are complex regular expressions to match any email but I have seen most emails having this syntax

[letter/number/dash/underscore/period]@[letter/number].[3 letters]

The regular expression can be of this form:

[a-z0-9\\-_\\.]{1,}@[a-z0-9]{1,}\\.[a-z]{3}

Assign the regex to a variable:

var regex = "[a-z0-9\\-_\\.]{1,}@[a-z0-9]{1,}\\.[a-z]{3}";

Then check a few email addresses:

var email1 = "homer.simpson_1@gmail.com";
var email2 = "bart@gmailcom";
var email3 = "Lisa@gmail.com";

We can convert the strings to lowercase and then match the regex:

email1.toLowerCase().matches(regex);
==> true

email2.toLowerCase().matches(regex);
==> false

email3.toLowerCase().matches(regex);
==> true

This one returns false email2 which had this format bart@gmailcom with the period missing.

How can we correct the email address and insert the period before the com?

For this exercise let’s assume that all email addresses end with three letters like com, org, edu and they have to be preceded by a period. We can iterate through each character of the string until the position where the . period is expected. Capture and append that substring into a StringBuilder object. Append the period. Then append the top level domain.

StringBuilder correctEmailSB = new StringBuilder();

for (var i = 0; i < email2.length() - 3; i++) {
    correctEmailSB.append(email2.charAt(i));
}

Check the variable:

jshell> correctEmailSB;
correctEmailSB ==> bart@gmail

Append the rest of the string:

correctEmailSB.append(".com");

Regular expressions with classes Pattern and Matcher

You can use regular expressions with classes Pattern and Matcher:

jshell> var email = "homer.simpson_1@gmail.com";
jshell> StringBuilder emailSB = new StringBuilder();

Modify the regular expression by adding groups in parentheses:

jshell> var regex2 = "([a-z0-9\\-_\\.]{1,})(@)([a-z0-9]{1,})(\\.)([a-z]{3})";

Use Pattern like this:

Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile(regex2);

Use Matcher on a string:

Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(email);

These are available methods for the matcher object.

appendReplacement(
appendTail(
end(
equals(
find(
getClass()
group(
groupCount()
hasAnchoringBounds()
hasTransparentBounds()
hashCode()
hitEnd()
lookingAt()
matches()
notify()
notifyAll()
pattern()
region(
regionEnd()
regionStart()
replaceAll(
replaceFirst(
requireEnd()
reset(
results()
start(
toMatchResult()
toString()
useAnchoringBounds(
usePattern(
useTransparentBounds(
wait(

Let’s use groupCount()

jshell> matcher.groupCount();
$39 ==> 5

See what the groups are, in jshell you can autocomplete and read the help pages by pressing tab as you type:

jshell> matcher.group(

Signatures:
String Matcher.group()
String Matcher.group(int group)
String Matcher.group(String name)

<press tab again to see documentation>

The parameter is to enter a group integer but this won’t work:

jshell> matcher.group(1);

|  Exception java.lang.IllegalStateException: No match found
|        at Matcher.group (Matcher.java:645)
|        at (#43:1)

First you have to find the matches with matcher.find().

You can iterate to find all groups as seen on stackoverflow here or assign the matching groups to variables.

First try the method:

jshell> matcher.find()
== true

Then get the groups:

while (matcher.find()) {
    System.out.println(matcher.group(1));
    System.out.println(matcher.group(2));
    System.out.println(matcher.group(3));
    System.out.println(matcher.group(4));
    System.out.println(matcher.group(5));
}

Output:

homer.simpson_1
@
gmail
.
com

This will be different for a string that doesn’t match the regex.

jshell> var email = "bart@gmailcom";
jshell> Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(email);

jshell> matcher.groupCount();
$6 ==> 5

Let’s see the groups:

while (matcher.find()) {
    System.out.println(matcher.group(1));
    System.out.println(matcher.group(2));
    System.out.println(matcher.group(3));
    System.out.println(matcher.group(4));
    System.out.println(matcher.group(5));
}

No output. Let’s try the method:

jshell> matcher.find();
==> false

Maybe the regular expression can be simplified to capture everthing up to @ and everything after that. Then the check if the substring with the domain and TLD has a period.

jshell> var regex = "(.*)(@)(.*)"
jshell> Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile(regex);
jshell> Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(email);
jshell> matcher.find();
==> true

jshell> matcher.groupCount();
==> 3

jshell> matcher.group(1);
==> "bart"

jshell> matcher.group(2);
==> "@"

jshell> matcher.group(3);
==> "gmailcom"

The third substring group(3) can be validated to add the period. Then all the substrings can be added to the StringBuilder object.