How could I replace a substring in a string with another substring in C++, what functions could I use?
eg: string test = "abc def abc def";
test.replace("abc", "hij").replace("def", "klm"); //replace occurrence of abc and def with other substring
std::string replace(std::string str, const std::string& sub1, const std::string& sub2)
{
if (sub1.empty())
return str;
std::size_t pos;
while ((pos = str.find(sub1)) != std::string::npos)
str.replace(pos, sub1.size(), sub2);
return str;
}
Here is a solution using recursion that replaces all occurrences of a substring with another substring. This works no matter the size of the strings.
std::string ReplaceString(const std::string source_string, const std::string old_substring, const std::string new_substring)
{
// Can't replace nothing.
if (old_substring.empty())
return source_string;
// Find the first occurrence of the substring we want to replace.
size_t substring_position = source_string.find(old_substring);
// If not found, there is nothing to replace.
if (substring_position == std::string::npos)
return source_string;
// Return the part of the source string until the first occurance of the old substring + the new replacement substring + the result of the same function on the remainder.
return source_string.substr(0,substring_position) + new_substring + ReplaceString(source_string.substr(substring_position + old_substring.length(),source_string.length() - (substring_position + old_substring.length())), old_substring, new_substring);
}
Usage example:
std::string my_cpp_string = "This string is unmodified. You heard me right, it's unmodified.";
std::cout << "The original C++ string is:\n" << my_cpp_string << std::endl;
my_cpp_string = ReplaceString(my_cpp_string, "unmodified", "modified");
std::cout << "The final C++ string is:\n" << my_cpp_string << std::endl;
std::string replace(const std::string & in
, const std::string & from
, const std::string & to){
if(from.size() == 0 ) return in;
std::string out = "";
std::string tmp = "";
for(int i = 0, ii = -1; i < in.size(); ++i) {
// change ii
if ( ii < 0 && from[0] == in[i] ) {
ii = 0;
tmp = from[0];
} else if( ii >= 0 && ii < from.size()-1 ) {
ii ++ ;
tmp = tmp + in[i];
if(from[ii] == in[i]) {
} else {
out = out + tmp;
tmp = "";
ii = -1;
}
} else {
out = out + in[i];
}
if( tmp == from ) {
out = out + to;
tmp = "";
ii = -1;
}
}
return out;
};
There is no one built-in function in C++ to do this. If you'd like to replace all instances of one substring with another, you can do so by intermixing calls to string::find and string::replace. For example:
size_t index = 0;
while (true) {
/* Locate the substring to replace. */
index = str.find("abc", index);
if (index == std::string::npos) break;
/* Make the replacement. */
str.replace(index, 3, "def");
/* Advance index forward so the next iteration doesn't pick it up as well. */
index += 3;
}
In the last line of this code, I've incremented index by the length of the string that's been inserted into the string. In this particular example - replacing "abc" with "def" - this is not actually necessary. However, in a more general setting, it is important to skip over the string that's just been replaced. For example, if you want to replace "abc" with "abcabc", without skipping over the newly-replaced string segment, this code would continuously replace parts of the newly-replaced strings until memory was exhausted. Independently, it might be slightly faster to skip past those new characters anyway, since doing so saves some time and effort by the string::find function.
Hope this helps!
using std::string;
string string_replace( string src, string const& target, string const& repl)
{
// handle error situations/trivial cases
if (target.length() == 0) {
// searching for a match to the empty string will result in
// an infinite loop
// it might make sense to throw an exception for this case
return src;
}
if (src.length() == 0) {
return src; // nothing to match against
}
size_t idx = 0;
for (;;) {
idx = src.find( target, idx);
if (idx == string::npos) break;
src.replace( idx, target.length(), repl);
idx += repl.length();
}
return src;
}
Since it's not a member of the string class, it doesn't allow quite as nice a syntax as in your example, but the following will do the equivalent:
test = string_replace( string_replace( test, "abc", "hij"), "def", "klm")
string & replace(string & subj, string old, string neu)
{
size_t uiui = subj.find(old);
if (uiui != string::npos)
{
subj.erase(uiui, old.size());
subj.insert(uiui, neu);
}
return subj;
}
I think this fits your requirement with few code!
I think all solutions will fail if the length of the replacing string is different from the length of the string to be replaced. (search for "abc" and replace by "xxxxxx") A general approach might be:
void replaceAll( string &s, const string &search, const string &replace ) {
for( size_t pos = 0; ; pos += replace.length() ) {
// Locate the substring to replace
pos = s.find( search, pos );
if( pos == string::npos ) break;
// Replace by erasing and inserting
s.erase( pos, search.length() );
s.insert( pos, replace );
}
}
Here is a solution I wrote using the builder tactic:
#include <string>
#include <sstream>
using std::string;
using std::stringstream;
string stringReplace (const string& source,
const string& toReplace,
const string& replaceWith)
{
size_t pos = 0;
size_t cursor = 0;
int repLen = toReplace.length();
stringstream builder;
do
{
pos = source.find(toReplace, cursor);
if (string::npos != pos)
{
//copy up to the match, then append the replacement
builder << source.substr(cursor, pos - cursor);
builder << replaceWith;
// skip past the match
cursor = pos + repLen;
}
}
while (string::npos != pos);
//copy the remainder
builder << source.substr(cursor);
return (builder.str());
}
Tests:
void addTestResult (const string&& testId, bool pass)
{
...
}
void testStringReplace()
{
string source = "123456789012345678901234567890";
string toReplace = "567";
string replaceWith = "abcd";
string result = stringReplace (source, toReplace, replaceWith);
string expected = "1234abcd8901234abcd8901234abcd890";
bool pass = (0 == result.compare(expected));
addTestResult("567", pass);
source = "123456789012345678901234567890";
toReplace = "123";
replaceWith = "-";
result = stringReplace(source, toReplace, replaceWith);
expected = "-4567890-4567890-4567890";
pass = (0 == result.compare(expected));
addTestResult("start", pass);
source = "123456789012345678901234567890";
toReplace = "0";
replaceWith = "";
result = stringReplace(source, toReplace, replaceWith);
expected = "123456789123456789123456789";
pass = (0 == result.compare(expected));
addTestResult("end", pass);
source = "123123456789012345678901234567890";
toReplace = "123";
replaceWith = "-";
result = stringReplace(source, toReplace, replaceWith);
expected = "--4567890-4567890-4567890";
pass = (0 == result.compare(expected));
addTestResult("concat", pass);
source = "1232323323123456789012345678901234567890";
toReplace = "323";
replaceWith = "-";
result = stringReplace(source, toReplace, replaceWith);
expected = "12-23-123456789012345678901234567890";
pass = (0 == result.compare(expected));
addTestResult("interleaved", pass);
source = "1232323323123456789012345678901234567890";
toReplace = "===";
replaceWith = "-";
result = utils_stringReplace(source, toReplace, replaceWith);
expected = source;
pass = (0 == result.compare(expected));
addTestResult("no match", pass);
}
Boost String Algorithms Library way:
#include <boost/algorithm/string/replace.hpp>
{ // 1.
string test = "abc def abc def";
boost::replace_all(test, "abc", "hij");
boost::replace_all(test, "def", "klm");
}
{ // 2.
string test = boost::replace_all_copy
( boost::replace_all_copy<string>("abc def abc def", "abc", "hij")
, "def"
, "klm"
);
}
Generalizing on rotmax's answer, here is a full solution to search & replace all instances in a string. If both substrings are of different size, the substring is replaced using string::erase and string::insert., otherwise the faster string::replace is used.
void FindReplace(string& line, string& oldString, string& newString) {
const size_t oldSize = oldString.length();
// do nothing if line is shorter than the string to find
if( oldSize > line.length() ) return;
const size_t newSize = newString.length();
for( size_t pos = 0; ; pos += newSize ) {
// Locate the substring to replace
pos = line.find( oldString, pos );
if( pos == string::npos ) return;
if( oldSize == newSize ) {
// if they're same size, use std::string::replace
line.replace( pos, oldSize, newString );
} else {
// if not same size, replace by erasing and inserting
line.erase( pos, oldSize );
line.insert( pos, newString );
}
}
}
Replacing substrings should not be that hard.
std::string ReplaceString(std::string subject, const std::string& search,
const std::string& replace) {
size_t pos = 0;
while((pos = subject.find(search, pos)) != std::string::npos) {
subject.replace(pos, search.length(), replace);
pos += replace.length();
}
return subject;
}
If you need performance, here is an optimized function that modifies the input string, it does not create a copy of the string:
void ReplaceStringInPlace(std::string& subject, const std::string& search,
const std::string& replace) {
size_t pos = 0;
while((pos = subject.find(search, pos)) != std::string::npos) {
subject.replace(pos, search.length(), replace);
pos += replace.length();
}
}
Tests:
std::string input = "abc abc def";
std::cout << "Input string: " << input << std::endl;
std::cout << "ReplaceString() return value: "
<< ReplaceString(input, "bc", "!!") << std::endl;
std::cout << "ReplaceString() input string not changed: "
<< input << std::endl;
ReplaceStringInPlace(input, "bc", "??");
std::cout << "ReplaceStringInPlace() input string modified: "
<< input << std::endl;
Output:
Input string: abc abc def
ReplaceString() return value: a!! a!! def
ReplaceString() input string not modified: abc abc def
ReplaceStringInPlace() input string modified: a?? a?? def
In c++11, you can use std::regex_replace:
#include <string>
#include <regex>
std::string test = "abc def abc def";
test = std::regex_replace(test, std::regex("def"), "klm");
the impoved version by @Czarek Tomczak.
allow both std::string and std::wstring.
template <typename charType>
void ReplaceSubstring(std::basic_string<charType>& subject,
const std::basic_string<charType>& search,
const std::basic_string<charType>& replace)
{
if (search.empty()) { return; }
typename std::basic_string<charType>::size_type pos = 0;
while((pos = subject.find(search, pos)) != std::basic_string<charType>::npos) {
subject.replace(pos, search.length(), replace);
pos += replace.length();
}
}
str.replace(str.find(str2),str2.length(),str3);
Where
str is the base stringstr2 is the sub string to findstr3 is the replacement substringstd::string replace(std::string str, std::string substr1, std::string substr2)
{
for (size_t index = str.find(substr1, 0); index != std::string::npos && substr1.length(); index = str.find(substr1, index + substr2.length() ) )
str.replace(index, substr1.length(), substr2);
return str;
}
Short solution where you don't need any extra Libraries.
If you are sure that the required substring is present in the string, then this will replace the first occurence of "abc" to "hij"
test.replace( test.find("abc"), 3, "hij");
It will crash if you dont have "abc" in test, so use it with care.
Source: Stackoverflow.com