Verify if String matches a format String

Question

In Java, how can you determine if a String matches a format string (ie: song%03d.mp3)?

In other words, how would you implement the following function?

Answer 1

Since you do not know the format in advance, you will have to write a method that converts a format string into a regexp. Not trivial, but possible. Here is a simple example for the 2 testcases you have given:

public static String getRegexpFromFormatString(String format)
{
    String toReturn = format;

    // escape some special regexp chars
    toReturn = toReturn.replaceAll("\\.", "\\\\.");
    toReturn = toReturn.replaceAll("\\!", "\\\\!");

    if (toReturn.indexOf("%") >= 0)
    {
        toReturn = toReturn.replaceAll("%s", "[\\\\w]+"); //accepts 0-9 A-Z a-z _

        while (toReturn.matches(".*%([0-9]+)[d]{1}.*"))
        {
            String digitStr = toReturn.replaceFirst(".*%([0-9]+)[d]{1}.*", "$1");
            int numDigits = Integer.parseInt(digitStr);
            toReturn = toReturn.replaceFirst("(.*)(%[0-9]+[d]{1})(.*)", "$1[0-9]{" + numDigits + "}$3");
        }
    }

    return "^" + toReturn + "$";
}

and some test code:

public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception
{
    String formats[] = {"hello %s!", "song%03d.mp3", "song%03d.mp3"};
    for (int i=0; i