Replace HTML codes with equivalent characters in Java
java, matcher, pattern-matching
Solution
Also, is there any way to optimize this regex?
Yes, don't use regex for this task, use Apache StringEscapeUtils from Apache commons lang:
import org.apache.commons.lang.StringEscapeUtils;
...
String withCharacters = StringEscapeUtils.unescapeHtml(yourString);
JavaDoc says:
Unescapes a string containing entity escapes to a string containing the actual Unicode characters corresponding to the escapes. Supports HTML 4.0 entities.
For example, the string `"<Français>"` will become `"<Français>"`
If an entity is unrecognized, it is left alone, and inserted verbatim into the result string. e.g. `">&zzzz;x"` will become `">&zzzz;x"`.
Problem
Currently I'm working on converting HTML codes with equivalent characters in java. I need to convert the below code to characters. ``` è - è ® - ® & - & ñ - ñ & - & ``` I tried using the regex pattern ``` (&#x)([\\d|\\w]*)([\\d|\\w]*)([\\d|\\w]*)([\\d|\\w]*)(;) ``` When I debug, `matcher.find()` gives me `true` but the control skips the loop where I have written the code for conversion. Don't know what is happening there. Also, is there any way to optimize this regex? Any help is appreciated. Exception ``` java.lang.NumberFormatException: For input string: "x26" at java.lang.NumberFormatException.forInputString(Unknown Source) at java.lang.Integer.parseInt(Unknown Source) at java.lang.Integer.parseInt(Unknown Source) at org.apache.commons.lang.Entities.unescape(Entities.java:683) at org.apache.commons.lang.StringEscapeUtils.unescapeHtml(StringEscapeUtils.java:483) ```