Question

In the end I need a regex which basically converts me a phone number into a E164 conform number. As for now i got this:

result = s.replaceAll("[(*)|+| ]", "");

It replaces everything fine: the spaces, the “+”-sign and also the braces “()”. But it does not match the content of its braces, so that e.g. the number [phone] will be replaced to 49111111111.

How can I get this to work?

Answer 1

You can do it, but what if there’s more than just a zero between parentheses?

result = s.replaceAll("\\([^()]*\\)|[*+ ]+", "");

As a verbose regex:

result = s.replaceAll(
    "(?x)     # Allow comments in the regex.                     \n" +
    "\\(      # Either match a (                                 \n" +
    "[^()]*   # then any number of characters except parentheses \n" +
    "\\)      # then a ).                                        \n" +
    "|        # Or                                               \n" +
    "[*+\\ ]+ # Match one or more asterisks, pluses or spaces", "");