How to replace a specific number of words in a string?

Question

What my code is trying to do, is print each word of a string on a newline. However, I have to limit that to only the first five words. Additionally, I have to add "first word: word" and so forth, for each of those five words. I'm not quite sure how to go about obtaining the results I desire.

In my code, I have:

  int space = sentence.indexOf(" ");
  sentence = sentence.substring(0,space) + "\n" + sentence.substring(space+1);           
  System.out.println(sentence.replaceAll("\\s+", "\n"));

Any help or guidance would be appreciated, thank you!

Answer 1

I would do something like this

char[] sentanceChars = sentance.toCharArray();
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
int wordIdx = 1;
for(int i=0; i<sentance.length(); i++) {
    if(sentanceChars[i] == ' ') {
        System.out.println("word "+ (wordIdx++) +"="+ sb.toString());
        if(wordIdx == 6) {
            break;
        }
        sb = new StringBuilder();
    } else {
        sb.append(sentanceChars[i]);
    }
}

Answer 2

You could separate your Token string and compare with some other string, if it meets replaces the string and then prints the first 5 words with the requested format and to print other words outside the top 5 could use a StringBuilder

StringBuilder bu = new StringBuilder();
 String str = "This is String As a Compare DAD ADAS DAS";
StringTokenizer st = new StringTokenizer(str);
  int x =0;
  while (st.hasMoreElements()) {
    String val = (String) st.nextElement();
    x+=1;
    if(val.equals("is"))val="NewValue"; //change word to other value
    if(x<=5)System.out.println(" WORD N° " + x + " " +val);
    else
        bu.append(val).append(" ");
    }
            System.out.println(bu.toString());

Ouput

 WORD N° 1 This 
 WORD N° 2 NewValue
 WORD N° 3 String
 WORD N° 4 As
 WORD N° 5 a 
 Compare ABC DFG AHG

Answer 3

Quite a simple approach with just iterating and using arrays to keep track of words...

import java.util.Arrays;

public class WordSplit {

    public static void main(String[] args){
        printStrings("This is a test string", 2);
    }


    public static void printStrings(String sentence, int skip){
        String[] splitSentence = sentence.split(" ");
        String[] afterSplit = Arrays.copyOfRange(splitSentence, skip, splitSentence.length);
        int c = 0;

        for(int i=0; i<skip; i++){
            System.out.println(ordinal(i+1)+" word: "+splitSentence[i]);
        }
        System.out.print("The rest of the sentence: ");
        for(String s: afterSplit){
            System.out.print(s+" ");
        }

        System.out.println();
    }

    public static String ordinal(int i) {
        String[] sufixes = new String[] { "th", "st", "nd", "rd", "th", "th", "th", "th", "th", "th" };
        switch (i % 100) {
            case 11:
            case 12:
            case 13:
                return i + "th";
            default:
                return i + sufixes[i % 10];
        }
    }

}

---

Output:

1st word: This
2nd word: is
The rest of the sentence: a test string

Answer 4

public static void main(String[] args){

    final String[] prefix = {"st", "nd", "ed","th", "th"};
    final String SPACE =" ", NL = "\n";
    String sentance ="A sentence with five word or more";
    int counter = 0;

    for(String s:  sentance.split(SPACE)){

        if(++counter > prefix.length) break;
        System.out.println(counter + prefix[counter-1] + " WORD: " + s + NL );
    }
}