Print String with escape non printable characters

Question

I have this String

String x="String containning special chars  \u202C \n  \u202C  \u202C  \u202C";

How can I print out this: String containning special chars \u202C \n \u202C \u202C \u202C ?

Tried

System.out.println(x.replace("\\","\\\\"));

But that only prints String containning special chars ‬ \n ‬ ‬ ‬

Also tried

String out = org.apache.commons.lang3.StringEscapeUtils.unescapeJava(x);
System.out.println(out);

But that also doesn't help.

Any one with a suggestion or an API that I am not aware of?

UPDATE - SOLUTION

Following @lbear aproach I came up with this functions that deals most cases of escaped Strings

public static String removeUnicodeAndEscapeChars(String input) {
    StringBuilder buffer = new StringBuilder(input.length());
    for (int i = 0; i < input.length(); i++) {
        if ((int) input.charAt(i) > 256) {
            buffer.append("\\u").append(Integer.toHexString((int) input.charAt(i)));
        } else {
            if (input.charAt(i) == '\n') {
                buffer.append("\\n");
            } else if(input.charAt(i) == '\t'){
                buffer.append("\\t");
            }else if(input.charAt(i) == '\r'){
                buffer.append("\\r");
            }else if(input.charAt(i) == '\b'){
                buffer.append("\\b");
            }else if(input.charAt(i) == '\f'){
                buffer.append("\\f");
            }else if(input.charAt(i) == '\''){
                buffer.append("\\'");
            }else if(input.charAt(i) == '\"'){
                buffer.append("\\");
            }else if(input.charAt(i) == '\\'){
                buffer.append("\\\\");
            }else {
                buffer.append(input.charAt(i));
            }
        }
    }
    return buffer.toString();
}

did you try this link. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4787769/how-to-convert-non-printable-character-or-string-to-hex — DevZer0, Jun 14 '13 at 07:57
I also see this earlier post, but it totally does not work http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7535317/how-to-replace-with-in-java — Peter Jaloveczki, Jun 14 '13 at 08:10

score 4 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 12 '13 at 20:25

4

There is the Apache Commons StringEscapeUtils which has HTML encoding. This encoding is pretty close to what you may need

String escaped code = StringEscapeUtils.escapeHtml(rowId)

See doc

answered Sep 12 '13 at 20:25

Brig

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StringEscapeUtils.escapeJava(rowId); // must have been added since 2013. – David Lotts Feb 20 '15 at 22:57

score 3 · Accepted Answer · edited May 02 '18 at 12:57

3

Use Integer.toHexString((int)x.charAt(34));, you can get the string of the unicode char, and add \\u before it, you will get the String.

public static String removeUnicode(String input){
    StringBuffer buffer = new StringBuffer(input.length());
    for (int i =0; i < input.length(); i++){
        if ((int)input.charAt(i) > 256){
        buffer.append("\\u").append(Integer.toHexString((int)input.charAt(i)));
        } else {
            if ( input.charAt(i) == '\n'){
                buffer.append("\\n");
            } else {
                buffer.append(input.charAt(i));
            }
        }
    }
    return buffer.toString();
}

edited May 02 '18 at 12:57

Daniel Causebrook

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answered Jun 14 '13 at 08:20

lbear

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so what exactly should I supply to `System.out.print()` to get the desired result? – MaVRoSCy Jun 14 '13 at 08:22
What you did here is you processed unicode characters and newline. what about all the others? This is basically the same as the others answer it just processes unicode characters all together that is almost okay, but there MUST be a general solution, remember all that needs to be done is to replace \ with \\ – Peter Jaloveczki Jun 14 '13 at 08:43
@MaVRoSCy I have fixed it. Please try it again. – lbear Jun 14 '13 at 08:45
@MaVRoSCy a Unicode character is regarded as one single char. When we use `replace()`, it can find \ leading the unicode char. – lbear Jun 14 '13 at 08:49

score -1 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 14 '13 at 08:00

-1

String original = "String containning special chars  \u202C \n  \u202C  \u202C  \u202C";
String escaped = original.replace("\u202C", "\\u202C");
System.out.println(escaped);

answered Jun 14 '13 at 08:00

JB Nizet

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I would personally like to be interested in a more general solution. – Peter Jaloveczki Jun 14 '13 at 08:04
yeap, actually to be correct I would use `original.replace("\u202C", "\\u202C").replace("\n", "\\n");` but I am looking for a more general solution – MaVRoSCy Jun 14 '13 at 08:05

Print String with escape non printable characters

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