Reformatting a list to add " " and ,

Question

I have a list like this but much longer in a text document.

I need it to be reformatted to

"1123451234", "1234123","1234567","123123123","112345678"

I have tried the robot class with java in a loop. I can add the " " and the , but the problem is each line is a different length so I can't simply have it click the left arrow a certain amount of times. What could I do? If you need more info please ask and thanks in advance!

Here's the code for the person that asked.

Robot r = new Robot(); 

r.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_QUOTE);
r.keyRelease(KeyEvent.VK_QUOTE);
r.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_RIGHT);
r.keyRelease(KeyEvent.VK_RIGHT);
r.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_RIGHT);
r.keyRelease(KeyEvent.VK_RIGHT);
r.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_RIGHT);
r.keyRelease(KeyEvent.VK_RIGHT);
r.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_RIGHT);
r.keyRelease(KeyEvent.VK_RIGHT);
r.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_COMMA);
r.keyRelease(KeyEvent.VK_COMMA);
r.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_QUOTE);
r.keyRelease(KeyEvent.VK_QUOTE);

I'm really curious to see how you used the robot class to attempt to do this. Can you show us please? — adarshr, Sep 19 '13 at 21:13
can you also show how you're reading that data in, and how you tried to deal with it? If you describe what you tried to so far, also show the code you used. — Mike 'Pomax' Kamermans, Sep 19 '13 at 21:15
Wow, that's quite a low level approach for doing something like this task. — adarshr, Sep 19 '13 at 21:22
@Mike'Pomax'Kamermans I posted the code in. The data is in a notepad and I am editing directly in the notepad. Is there a better way to do this? — SolidCloudinc, Sep 19 '13 at 21:22
@adarshr I'm still learning. Hence why I'm posting on this site. Don't comment insults, at least give some info on how I can improve. Thanks. — SolidCloudinc, Sep 19 '13 at 21:25
@SolidCloudinc That was surely not an insult. I really appreciate what you have done there. There was an instance where I had to something similar to automate a flash game! — adarshr, Sep 19 '13 at 21:28
Can you explain why you need to do this by sending keystrokes to an editor? Can you not use sed or awk? — Jim Garrison, Sep 19 '13 at 21:33

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 19 '13 at 21:20

0

You could write a helper program that will take the data in the text file (for example, file.txt) and reformat it like so (untested code, but you get the idea):

BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(new File("file.txt")));
String line, result = "";
while ((line = reader.readLine()) != null) {
    result += "\"" + line + "\",";
}
result = result.substring(0, result.length() - 1); // remove last comma
// do stuff with result

About your Robot-based approach: you can use the Home and End keys to jump to the beginning or end of the line:

// jump to end
r.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_END);
r.keyRelease(KeyEvent.VK_END);

// jump to start
r.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_HOME;
r.keyRelease(KeyEvent.VK_HOME);

answered Sep 19 '13 at 21:20

tckmn

57,719
27
114
156

OP need to add " as well in the beginning and end of each word. – Ahsan Shah Sep 19 '13 at 21:22
I will be trying this. – SolidCloudinc Sep 19 '13 at 21:46
@Doorknob BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(new File("file.txt"))); gives an error. Where should I place file.txt? – SolidCloudinc Sep 19 '13 at 22:08
@SolidCloudinc What error? Did you remember to `import` the relevant classes? – tckmn Sep 19 '13 at 22:16
@Doorknob Yes, and no suggestions available. – SolidCloudinc Sep 19 '13 at 22:19
@Doorknob Exception in thread "main" java.lang.Error: Unresolved compilation problems: The constructor BufferedReader(FileReader) is undefined FileReader cannot be resolved to a type File cannot be resolved to a type at Format.main(Format.java:8) – SolidCloudinc Sep 19 '13 at 22:22
@Doorknob sorry for all the question but now i get Exception in thread "main" java.io.FileNotFoundException: file.txt (The system cannot find the file specified) at java.io.FileInputStream.open(Native Method) at java.io.FileInputStream.(Unknown Source) at java.io.FileReader.(Unknown Source) at Format.main(Format.java:11) – SolidCloudinc Sep 19 '13 at 22:27
@SolidCloudinc `The system cannot find the file specified` Please actually read the error messages. The last one was quite clear, and this one is too. – tckmn Sep 19 '13 at 22:28
@Doorknob Right but where do I save the file? – SolidCloudinc Sep 19 '13 at 22:30
@SolidCloudinc In the same folder as your program... or just do `new File("C:/some/path/file.txt");`. I have to go now, hope you solve your problem! – tckmn Sep 19 '13 at 22:30

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 19 '13 at 21:20

If you don't want to do this programmatically, I'd suggest just opening any decent text editor such as Sublime Text and do a find - replace with regular expressions switched on.

Find (\d+)\n

Replace with "$1",

With this, if you do a replace all, you'll end up with

"123451234","1234123","1234567",12345678

So, just do the last one manually.

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Sep 19 '13 at 21:50

Using sed command-line

$ cat test.dat
123451234
1234123
1234567
12345678

$ sed -e's/^\(.*\)$/"\1"/' test.dat
"123451234"
"1234123"
"1234567"
"12345678"

The regular expression matches the entire line and wraps it with quotes. This outputs to stdout, but just redirect to a file to save the output:

$ sed -e's/^\(.*\)$/"\1"/' test.dat > quoted.dat

Reformatting a list to add " " and ,

3 Answers3