Question

I have the following template String: "Hello [Name] Please find attached [Invoice Number] which is due on [Due Date]".

I also have String variables for name, invoice number and due date – what’s the best way to replace the tokens in the template with the variables?

(Note that if a variable happens to contain a token it should NOT be replaced).

---

EDIT

With thanks to @laginimaineb and @alan-moore, here’s my solution:

public static String replaceTokens(String text, 
                                   Map<String, String> replacements) {
    Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile("\\[(.+?)\\]");
    Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(text);
    StringBuffer buffer = new StringBuffer();

    while (matcher.find()) {
        String replacement = replacements.get(matcher.group(1));
        if (replacement != null) {
            // matcher.appendReplacement(buffer, replacement);
            // see comment 
            matcher.appendReplacement(buffer, "");
            buffer.append(replacement);
        }
    }
    matcher.appendTail(buffer);
    return buffer.toString();
}

Answer 1

The most efficient way would be using a matcher to continually find the expressions and replace them, then append the text to a string builder:

Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile("\\[(.+?)\\]");
Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(text);
HashMap<String,String> replacements = new HashMap<String,String>();
//populate the replacements map ...
StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder();
int i = 0;
while (matcher.find()) {
    String replacement = replacements.get(matcher.group(1));
    builder.append(text.substring(i, matcher.start()));
    if (replacement == null)
        builder.append(matcher.group(0));
    else
        builder.append(replacement);
    i = matcher.end();
}
builder.append(text.substring(i, text.length()));
return builder.toString();