How do I make this regex a valid Java regex?

Question

In an earlier question I asked about sanitizing postal street addresses, one of the respondents recommended this solution:

addressString.replace(/^\s*[0-9]+\s*(?=.*$)/,'');

which is perhaps a valid regex call but is not valid in Java.

I unsuccessfully tried to make this valid Java code by changing it to the following:

addressString.replaceAll("/^\\s*[0-9]+\\s*(?=.*$)/","")

But this code had no effect on the address I tested it with:

310 W 50th Street

Did I not correctly translate this to Java?

Answer 1

You need to get rid of the forward slashes at the beginning and end.

For the future, you can probably ask for clarification on the answer itself instead of starting a new question. I apologize, I was going to ask the person who gave that answer to translate it to valid Java myself but forgot.

Answer 2

You don't need the slashes in Java.

addressString.replaceAll("^\\s*[0-9]+\\s*(?=.*$)","")

Answer 3

You need to take out the slashes at the beginning and end:

addressString.replaceAll("^\\s*[0-9]+\\s*(?=.*$)","")

They're used to quote regexes in some languages, but Java just uses ""

Answer 4

Edited to support street names that start with a number:

Try the following Java String:

"^\\s*[0-9]+\\s*(?=.*$)".