Question

For this simple program …

import java.lang.String;

public class test {

    public static void main(String[] argv) {

        String s = "Hello <BSLASH>";
        String sReplaced = s.replaceAll("<BSLASH>", "\\\\");

        System.out.println("s = " + s);
        System.out.println("sReplaced = " + sReplaced);

    }
}

Why doesn’t sReplaced equal Hello \\ with 2 backslashes?

$javac test.java
$ java test
s = Hello <BSLASH>
sReplaced = Hello \

Answer 1

Don’t use replaceAll for this, use replace:

String sReplaced = s.replace("<BSLASH>", "\\\\");

replaceAll takes a regular expression, which is not necessary here (this is why \\\\ evaluates to \).

Oh, and you really don’t need import java.lang.String – the String class is imported by default.