java - removing semi colon from a string if the string ends with it

Question

I have a requirement in which I need to remove the semicolon if it is present at the end of the String(only at the end). I have tried the following code. But still it is not

Answer 1

There are multiple problems in the code you have provided.

Use equals to compare objects.

if(text.substring(text.length()-1).equals(";"))

If you want to replace only the last character, you dont need replaceAll.

So do either

if(text.substring(text.length()-1).equals(";")) {
      text = text.substring(0, text.length()-1);
    } 

or

text = text.replaceAll(";", "");

Answer 2

text.replaceAll(";", "");

Since Strings in Java are immutable, so replaceALl() method doesn't do the in-place replacement, rather it returns a new modified string. So, you need to store the return value in some other string. Also, to match the semi-colon at the end, you need to use $ quantifier after ;

text = text.replaceAll(";$", "");

$ denotes the end of the string since you want to replace the last semi-colon..

If you don't use $, it will replace all the ; from your strings..

Or, for your job, you can simply use this, if you want to remove the last ;:

    if (text.endsWith(";")) {
        text = text.substring(0, text.length() - 1);
        System.out.println(text);
    }

UPDATE: And, if there are more semi-colons at the end:

text = text.replaceAll(";+$", "");

Answer 3

String modifiedText = text.replaceAll(";$", "");

OR

text = text.replaceAll(";$", "");

OR

if (text.endsWith(";")) {
    text = text.substring(0, text.length() - 1);
}

NOTE:

Strings are immutable. That means you can't change them.

Therefore you have to either re-assign text or set it to a new variable.

Answer 4

You are using the wrong version of String.substring, You could use:

text.substring(0, text.length() - 1)

Answer 5

Use .equals() instead of == if you're going to use substring() rather than charAt():

if(text.substring(text.length()-1).equals(";"))

Also, reassign your text variable:

text = text.replaceAll(";", "");

Answer 6

Solution for only one semi-colon

// Don't use regular expressions if you don't need to.
if (text.endsWith(";")) {
    text = text.substring(0, text.length() - 1);
}

Slower solution for possibly more than one semi-colon

text.replaceAll(";+$", "");

Additionally, here are some other problems with the code you originally posted, for reference.

if(text.substring(text.length()-1) == ";"){

You can't compare strings with ==. Instead, you have to compare them with .equals(). This would be correctly written like this ...ength()-1).equals(";").

text.replaceAll(";", "");

This replaces all semicolons it finds. This means that if your string was some;thing;, it would turn it into something, but you want to only remove the last semicolon, like this: some;thing. To do this correctly, you need to look for the end of the string, using the special $ character like this:

text.replaceAll(";$", "");