Replace all escape sequences with non-escaped equivalent strings in java

Question

I have a string like this:

<![CDATA[<ClinicalDocument>rest of CCD here</ClinicalDocument>]]>

I'd like to replace the escape sequences with their non-escaped characters, to end up with:

<![CDATA[<ClinicalDocument>rest of CCD here</ClinicalDocument>]]>

Answer 1

Here is a non-regex solution.

String original = "something";

String[] escapes = new String[]{"<", ">"}; // add more if you need
String[] replace = new String[]{"<", ">"}; // add more if you need

String new = original;

for (int i = 0; i < escapes.length; i++) {
    new = new.replaceAll(escapes[i], replace[i]);
}

Sometimes a simple loop is easier to read, understand, and code.

Answer 2

StringEscapeUtils.unescapeXml() from commons-lang might be the thing you are looking for.

Answer 3

use an xml parser.