Convert ArrayList<String> With Quotes Read from an external txt file to ArrayList<String> Without the Quotes Using Java 8

Question

I am trying to read huge lines of words in quotes eg "DSRD","KJHT","BFXXX","OUYTP" from a text file, so that I can have something like [DSRD, KJHT, BFXXX, OUYTP].

I have tried these 2 codes below but still returns the lines with quotes:

   1. List<String> lines = Files.readAllLines(Paths.get(filePath), ENCODING);
   2. List<String> lines = new ArrayList<>(Files.readAllLines(Paths.get(filePath)));

Is there a way I can make this return just the list of the Strings without the quotes in each of the Strings?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Answer 1

You can remove the quotes after reading the file using String#replaceAll :

List<String> lines = Files.readAllLines(Paths.get(filePath), ENCODING);
lines = lines.stream().map(s -> s.replaceAll("\"", "")).collect(Collectors.toList());

Answer 2

You can split the words as they are separated by commas and apply transformation on them and finally join them back:

for(int i = 0; i < lines.size(); i++) {
    String line = lines[i];
    String[] words = line.split(",");

    for (int j = 0; j < words.length; j++) {
        words[j] = words[j].replaceAll("^\"|\"$", "");
    }
    
    lines[i] = String.join(",", words);
}