Sorry, Java's substring is not as flexible as Python's slice notation.
In particular:
- You can give it just a begin, or a begin and end, but not just an end. (Also, no step, but you don't miss that as much.)
- Negative indices are an error, not a count from the end.
You can see the docs here.
However, it's not hard at all to write this on your own:
public String slice_start(String s, int startIndex) {
if (startIndex < 0) startIndex = s.length() + startIndex;
return s.substring(startIndex);
}
public String slice_end(String s, int endIndex) {
if (endIndex < 0) endIndex = s.length() + endIndex;
return s.substring(0, endIndex);
}
public String slice_range(String s, int startIndex, int endIndex) {
if (startIndex < 0) startIndex = s.length() + startIndex;
if (endIndex < 0) endIndex = s.length() + endIndex;
return s.substring(startIndex, endIndex);
}
Put those as static methods of some utility class.
Obviously this isn't exactly the same as Python, but it probably handles all the cases you want, and very simple. If you want to handle other edge cases (including things like step and passing slices around and so on), you can add whatever additional code you want; none of it is particularly tricky.
Other sequences are basically the same, but there you're going to want subSequence instead of substring. (You can also use subSequence on strings, because a String is a CharSequence.)
Arrays aren't actually a type of sequence at all; you'll need to write code that explicitly creates a new Array and copies the sub-array. But it's still not much more complicated.
Note that you may want to look for a library that's already done this for you. There are at least three linked in other answers on this page, which should make your search easy. :) (You may still want to do it for yourself once, just to understand how those libraries work—but for production code, I'd rather use a library where someone else has figured out and tested all of the edge cases than to reimplement the wheel and deal with them as they get caught in unit tests, or errors in the field…)
Answer from abarnert on Stack OverflowSorry, Java's substring is not as flexible as Python's slice notation.
In particular:
- You can give it just a begin, or a begin and end, but not just an end. (Also, no step, but you don't miss that as much.)
- Negative indices are an error, not a count from the end.
You can see the docs here.
However, it's not hard at all to write this on your own:
public String slice_start(String s, int startIndex) {
if (startIndex < 0) startIndex = s.length() + startIndex;
return s.substring(startIndex);
}
public String slice_end(String s, int endIndex) {
if (endIndex < 0) endIndex = s.length() + endIndex;
return s.substring(0, endIndex);
}
public String slice_range(String s, int startIndex, int endIndex) {
if (startIndex < 0) startIndex = s.length() + startIndex;
if (endIndex < 0) endIndex = s.length() + endIndex;
return s.substring(startIndex, endIndex);
}
Put those as static methods of some utility class.
Obviously this isn't exactly the same as Python, but it probably handles all the cases you want, and very simple. If you want to handle other edge cases (including things like step and passing slices around and so on), you can add whatever additional code you want; none of it is particularly tricky.
Other sequences are basically the same, but there you're going to want subSequence instead of substring. (You can also use subSequence on strings, because a String is a CharSequence.)
Arrays aren't actually a type of sequence at all; you'll need to write code that explicitly creates a new Array and copies the sub-array. But it's still not much more complicated.
Note that you may want to look for a library that's already done this for you. There are at least three linked in other answers on this page, which should make your search easy. :) (You may still want to do it for yourself once, just to understand how those libraries work—but for production code, I'd rather use a library where someone else has figured out and tested all of the edge cases than to reimplement the wheel and deal with them as they get caught in unit tests, or errors in the field…)
Java Boon Slice Notation allows all of that and with Strings, Lists, Sets, Maps, etc.
Many languages have slice notation (Ruby, Groovy and Python). Boon adds this to Java.
Boon has three slc operators: slc, slc (start only), and slcEnd.
With Boon you can slice strings, arrays (primitive and generic), lists, sets, tree sets, tree map's and more.
Slice notations - a gentle introduction
The boon slice operators works like Python/Ruby slice notation:
Ruby slice notation
arr = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]
arr[2] #=> 3
arr[-3] #=> 4
arr[2, 3] #=> [3, 4, 5]
arr[1..4] #=> [2, 3, 4, 5]
Python slice notation
string = "foo bar"
string [0:3] #'foo'
string [-3:7] #'bar'
What follows is derived from an excellent write up on Python's slice notation:
The basics of slice notations are as follows:
Python Slice Notation
a[ index ] # index of item
a[ start : end ] # items start through end-1
a[ start : ] # items start through the rest of the array
a[ : end ] # items from the beginning through end-1
a[ : ] # a copy of the whole array
Java Slice Notation using Boon:
idx( index ) // index of item
slc( a, start, end ) // items start through end-1
slc( a, start ) // items start through the rest of the array
slcEnd( a, end ) // items from the beginning through end-1
copy( a ) // a copy of the whole array
slc stands for slice idx stands for index slcEnd stands for end slice. copy stands for well, err, um copy of course
The key point to remember is that the end value represents the first value that is not in the selected slice. So, the difference between end and start is the number of elements selected. The other feature is that start or end may be a negative number, which means it counts from the end of the array instead of the beginning.
Thus:
Python slice notation with negative index
a[ -1 ] # last item in the array
a[ -2: ] # last two items in the array
a[ :-2 ] # everything except the last two items
Java negative index
idx ( a, -1) // last item in the array
slc ( -2 ) // last two items in the array
slcEnd( -2 ) // everything except the last two items
Python and Boon are kind to the programmer if there are fewer items than you ask for: Python does not allow you to go out of bounds, if you do it returns at worse an empty list. Boon follows this tradition, but provides an option to get exception for out of bounds (described later). In Python and Boon, if you go to far, you get the length, if you try to go under 0 you get 0 (under 0 after calculation). Conversely, Ruby gives you a null pointer (Nil). Boon copies Python style as one of the goals of Boon is to avoid ever returning null (you get an exception, Option). (Boon has second operator called zlc which throws an out of bounds index exception, but most people should use slc.)
For example, if you ask for slcEnd(a, -2) (a[:-2]) and a only contains one element, you get an empty list instead of an error. Sometimes you would prefer the error, and with Boon you have that option.
More slicing
Here are some basic Java types, list, array, veggies, primitive char array, and a primitive byte array.
Declare variables to work with in Boon
//Boon works with lists, arrays, sets, maps, sorted maps, etc.
List<String> fruitList;
String [] fruitArray;
Set<String> veggiesSet;
char [] letters;
byte [] bytes;
NavigableMap <Integer, String> favoritesMap;
Map<String, Integer> map;
//In Java a TreeMap is a SortedMap and a NavigableMap by the way.
Boon comes with helper methods that allow you to easily create lists, sets, maps, concurrent maps, sorted maps, sorted sets, etc. The helper methods are safeList, list, set, sortedSet, safeSet, safeSortedSet, etc. The idea is to make Java feel more like list and maps are built in types.
Initialize set, list, array of strings, array of chars, and array of bytes
veggiesSet = set( "salad", "broccoli", "spinach");
fruitList = list( "apple", "oranges", "pineapple");
fruitArray = array( "apple", "oranges", "pineapple");
letters = array( 'a', 'b', 'c');
bytes = array( new byte[]{0x1, 0x2, 0x3, 0x4});
There are even methods to create maps and sorted maps called map, sortedMap, safeMap (concurrent) and sortedSafeMap(concurrent). These were mainly created because Java does not have literals for lists, maps, etc.
Java: Use map operator to generate a SortedMap and a Map
favoritesMap = sortedMap(
2, "pineapple",
1, "oranges",
3, "apple"
);
map = map (
"pineapple", 2,
"oranges", 1,
"apple", 3
);
You can index maps, lists, arrays, etc. using the idx operator.
Java: Using the Boon Java idx operator to get the values at an index
//Using idx to access a value.
assert idx( veggiesSet, "b").equals("broccoli");
assert idx( fruitList, 1 ).equals("oranges");
assert idx( fruitArray, 1 ).equals("oranges");
assert idx( letters, 1 ) == 'b';
assert idx( bytes, 1 ) == 0x2;
assert idx( favoritesMap, 2 ).equals("pineapple");
assert idx( map, "pineapple" ) == 2;
The idx operators works with negative indexes as well.
Java: Using idx operator with negative values
//Negative indexes
assert idx( fruitList, -2 ).equals("oranges");
assert idx( fruitArray, -2 ).equals("oranges");
assert idx( letters, -2 ) == 'b';
assert idx( bytes, -3 ) == 0x2;
Ruby, Groovy and Python have this feature. Now you can use this in Java as well! The Java version (Boon) works with primitive arrays so you get no auto-boxing.
Something that Ruby and Python don't have is slice notation for SortedSets and SortedMaps. You can use slice notation to search sorted maps and sorted sets in Java
Slice notations works with sorted maps and sorted sets.
Here is an example that puts a few concepts together.
set = sortedSet("apple", "kiwi", "oranges", "pears", "pineapple")
slcEnd( set, "o" ) //returns ("oranges", "pears", "pineapple")
slc( set, "ap", "o" ) //returns ("apple", "kiwi"),
slc( set, "o" ) //returns ("apple", "kiwi")
You are really doing with slicing of sorted maps and sorted sets is a between query of sorts. What item comes after "pi"?
after(set, "pi") //pineapple
And before pineapple?
before(set, "pi")
Ok, let go through it step by step....
NavigableSet<String> set =
sortedSet("apple", "kiwi", "oranges", "pears", "pineapple");
assertEquals(
"oranges", idx(set, "ora")
);
Remember: TreeSet implements NavigableSet and SortedSet.
This was derived from my blog....
http://rick-hightower.blogspot.com/2013/10/java-slice-notation-to-split-up-strings.html
More examples are there.
I derived some of the verbiage from this discussion on Python slicing.
Explain Python's slice notation
Here is the Boon project link:
https://github.com/RichardHightower/boon
Now let's continue to SLICE!
We can look up the first fruit in the set that starts with 'o' using:
idx(set, "o")
Here is is with the set of fruit we created earlier (set is a TreeSet with "apple", "kiwi", "oranges", "pears", "pineapple" in it).
assertEquals(
"oranges", idx(set, "o")
);
We found oranges!
Here it is again but this time we are searching for fruits that start with "p", i.e., idx(set, "p").
assertEquals(
"pears",
idx(set, "p")
);
Yeah! We found pears!
How about fruits that start with a "pi" like "pineapple" - idx(set, "pi")
assertEquals(
"pineapple",
idx(set, "pi")
);
You could also ask for the item that is after another item. What is after "pi"? after(set, "pi")
assertEquals(
"pineapple",
after(set, "pi")
);
The "pineapple" is after the item "pi". after and idx are the same by the way. So why did I add an after? So I can have a before!!! :) What if you want to know what is before "pi"?
before(set, "pi")
Slice string in java - Stack Overflow
How to slice a string based on the Nth occurrence of a certain character
Java string slice
Question about string sequencing and slicing
You can use String#split:
String s = "14.015_AUDI";
String[] parts = s.split("_"); //returns an array with the 2 parts
String firstPart = parts[0]; //14.015
You should add error checking (that the size of the array is as expected for example)
Instead of split that creates a new list and has two times copy, I would use substring which works on the original string and does not create new strings
String s = "14.015_AUDI";
String firstPart = s.substring(0, s.indexOf("_"));
I've been using Python a lot recently..and as a result my Java is a little rusty.
Say I have a string:
String s = "test.test1.test2.test3"
I want to be able to slice the string and keep everything after the nth period. So for n = 2, I would get
"test2.test3"
My first thought was a loop, and use substring() to slice everything up to the first period , then loop n times. Though I'm sure there is a better way. And I'm limited to the standard library.