Java replace multiple substrings within a string with regex

Question

I have generated an UML file from a model.xml with UML2 generator.

Now I want to replace the generated ids created in xmi:id="generated id".

Below is a snippet of the generated UML code.

<packagedElement xmi:type="uml:Package" xmi:id="_lAAK0A34Eeap1Y_jd5mZDA" name="java">
  <packagedElement xmi:type="uml:Package" xmi:id="_lAAK0Q34Eeap1Y_jd5mZDA" name="lang">
    <packagedElement xmi:type="uml:DataType" xmi:id="_lAAK0g34Eeap1Y_jd5mZDA" name="String"/>
    <packagedElement xmi:type="uml:DataType" xmi:id="_lAAK0w34Eeap1Y_jd5mZDA" name="Boolean"/>
    <packagedElement xmi:type="uml:DataType" xmi:id="_lAAK1A34Eeap1Y_jd5mZDA" name="Byte"/>
    <packagedElement xmi:type="uml:DataType" xmi:id="_lAAK1Q34Eeap1Y_jd5mZDA" name="Character"/>
    <packagedElement xmi:type="uml:DataType" xmi:id="_lAAK1g34Eeap1Y_jd5mZDA" name="Double"/>
    <packagedElement xmi:type="uml:DataType" xmi:id="_lAAK1w34Eeap1Y_jd5mZDA" name="Float"/>
    <packagedElement xmi:type="uml:DataType" xmi:id="_lAAK2A34Eeap1Y_jd5mZDA" name="Integer"/>
    <packagedElement xmi:type="uml:DataType" xmi:id="_lAAK2Q34Eeap1Y_jd5mZDA" name="Long"/>
    <packagedElement xmi:type="uml:DataType" xmi:id="_lAAK2g34Eeap1Y_jd5mZDA" name="Short"/>
  </packagedElement>
</packagedElement>

I have tried to use regex to remove the IDs. First I read the file and convert it to a string then I find an pattern with Matcher and try to replace it. One problem is that the gernerated ID's are similar but not the same and i don't know how to tackle this. I guess this doesn't work because it only takes the first?

Path path = profileFile.toPath();
Charset charset = StandardCharsets.UTF_8;
String replaceString = "";
String content = new String(Files.readAllBytes(path), charset);
Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile("xmi:id=\"([A-Za-z0-9_]*)\"");
Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(content);
if (matcher.find())
{
  replaceString = matcher.group(0);
  Pattern p = Pattern.compile("\"([^\"]*)\"");
  Matcher m = p.matcher(replaceString);
  if (m.find())
  {
    System.out.println("is this the real life:    " + m.group(1));
    replaceString = m.group(1);
  }
}
// content = content.replaceAll("xmi:id=\"([A-Za-z0-9_]*)\"", "xmi:id=\"\"");
content = content.replaceAll(replaceString, "");
Files.write(path, content.getBytes(charset));

Any idea is appreciated, you can just nudge me in the right direction. My brain is a bit blurry right now.

Answer 1

I believe you can get away with a single call to replaceAll():

String input = "<packagedElement xmi:type=\"uml:DataType\" xmi:id=\"_lAAK0g34Eeap1Y_jd5mZDA\" name=\"String\"/>";
String output = input.replaceAll("xmi:id=\".*?\"", "xmi:id=\"\"");
System.out.println("Input:\n" + input);
System.out.println("Output:\n" + output);

Output:

Input:
<packagedElement xmi:type="uml:DataType" xmi:id="_lAAK0g34Eeap1Y_jd5mZDA" name="String"/>
Output:
<packagedElement xmi:type="uml:DataType" xmi:id="" name="String"/>

This assumes that you were trying to empty the xmi:id property in your XML tags, which is what your question seems to be implying.

Answer 2

I made the changes markbernard mentioned and it works as i wanted.

Path path = profileFile.toPath();
Charset charset = StandardCharsets.UTF_8;
String replaceString = "";
String content = new String(Files.readAllBytes(path), charset);
Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile("xmi:id=\"([A-Za-z0-9_]*)\"");
Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(content);
while (matcher.find())
{
  replaceString = matcher.group(0);
  Pattern p = Pattern.compile("\"([^\"]*)\"");
  Matcher m = p.matcher(replaceString);
  if (m.find())
  {
    System.out.println("is this the real life:    " + m.group(1));
    replaceString = m.group(1);
    content = content.replaceAll(replaceString, "");
  }
}

Files.write(path, content.getBytes(charset));

I just had to change the outer if matcher.find() to while and move the replaceAll() inside the second m.find().

I haven't tried Tim Biegeleisen solution.