Replacing characters in Ant property

Question

Is there a simple way of taking the value of a property and then copy it to another property with certain characters replaced   Say propA This is a value  I want to replace all the spaces in it into underscores  resulting in propB This is a value

User · Accepted Answer

Use the propertyregex task from Ant Contrib.

I think you want:

<propertyregex property="propB"
               input="${propA}"
               regexp=" "
               replace="_"
               global="true" />

Unfortunately the examples given aren't terribly clear, but it's worth trying that. You should also check what happens if there aren't any underscores - you may need to use the defaultValue option as well.

User · Answer

Adding an answer more complete example over a previous answer   lt property name  propB   value    propA    gt   lt loadresource property  propB  gt     lt propertyresource name  propB     gt     lt filterchain gt       lt tokenfilter gt         lt replaceregex pattern      replace     flags  g   gt       lt  tokenfilter gt     lt  filterchain gt   lt  loadresource gt

User · Answer

Use some external app like sed    lt exec executable  sed  inputstring    wersja   outputproperty  wersjaDot  gt     lt arg value  s     g   gt   lt  exec gt   lt echo gt   wersjaDot  lt  echo gt    If you run Windows get it googling for  gnuwin32 sed    The command s     g replaces every   with   This script goes well under windows  Under linux arg may need quoting

User · Answer

Or    You can also to try Your Own Task  JAVA CODE   class CustomString extends Task   private String type  string  before  after  returnValue   public void execute         if  getType   equals  replace              replace getString    getBefore    getAfter              private void replace String str  String a  String b       String results   str replace a  b       Project project   getProject        project setProperty getReturnValue    results        all getter and setter     ANT SCRIPT       lt project name  ant-test  default  build  gt    lt target name  build  depends  compile  run   gt    lt target name  clean  gt       lt delete dir  build    gt   lt  target gt    lt target name  compile  depends  clean  gt       lt mkdir dir  build classes   gt       lt javac srcdir  src  destdir  build classes  includeantruntime  true   gt   lt  target gt    lt target name  declare  depends  compile  gt       lt taskdef name  string  classname  CustomString  classpath  build classes    gt   lt  target gt    lt  -- Replacing characters in Ant property -- gt   lt target name  run  depends  declare  gt       lt property name  propA  value  This is a value   gt       lt echo message  propA   propA     gt       lt string type  replace  string    propA   before     after     returnvalue  propB   gt       lt echo message  propB   propB     gt   lt  target gt    CONSOLE   run        echo  propA This is a value       echo  propB This is a value

User · Answer

Here is the solution without scripting and no external jars like ant-conrib   The trick is to use ANT s resources    There is one resource type called  propertyresource  which is like a source file  but provides an stream from the string value of this resource  So you can load it and use it in any task like  copy  that accepts files There is also the task  loadresource  that can load any resource to a property  e g   a file   but this one could also load our propertyresource  This task allows for filtering the input by applying some token transformations  Finally the following will do what you want     lt loadresource property  propB  gt     lt propertyresource name  propA   gt     lt filterchain gt       lt tokenfilter gt         lt filetokenizer  gt         lt replacestring from     to      gt       lt  tokenfilter gt     lt  filterchain gt   lt  loadresource gt    This one will replace all     in propA by     and place the result in propB   filetokenizer  treats the whole input stream  our property  as one token and appies the string replacement on it   You can do other fancy transformations using other tokenfilters  http   ant apache org manual Types filterchain html

User · Answer

If ant-contrib isn t an option  here s a portable solution for Java 1 6 and later    lt property name  before  value  This is a value   gt   lt script language  javascript  gt      var before   project getProperty  before        project setProperty  after   before replaceAll              lt  script gt   lt echo gt after   after  lt  echo gt

User · Answer

Properties can t be changed but antContrib vars  http   ant-contrib sourceforge net tasks tasks variable task html   can   Here is a macro to do a find replace on a var        lt macrodef name  replaceVarText  gt           lt attribute name  varName    gt           lt attribute name  from    gt           lt attribute name  to    gt           lt sequential gt               lt local name  replacedText   gt               lt local name  textToReplace   gt               lt local name  fromProp   gt               lt local name  toProp   gt               lt property name  textToReplace  value        varName     gt               lt property name  fromProp  value      from    gt               lt property name  toProp  value      to    gt                lt script language  javascript  gt                  project setProperty  replacedText  project getProperty  textToReplace   split project getProperty  fromProp    join project getProperty  toProp                   lt  script gt               lt ac var name    varName   value      replacedText    gt           lt  sequential gt       lt  macrodef gt    Then call the macro like    lt ac var name  updatedText  value    oldText    gt   lt current replaceVarText varName  updatedText  from     to       gt   lt echo message  Updated Text will be   updatedText    gt    Code above uses javascript split then join  which is faster than regex    local  properties are passed to JavaScript so no property leakage

User · Answer

Two possibilities    via script task and builtin javascript engine  if using jdk    1 6    lt project gt     lt property name  propA  value  This is a value   gt     lt script language  javascript  gt    project setProperty  propB   project getProperty  propA       replace               lt  script gt    lt echo gt    propB    gt    propB  lt  echo gt    lt  project gt    or using Ant addon Flaka   lt project xmlns fl  antlib it haefelinger flaka  gt     lt property name  propA  value  This is a value   gt     lt fl let gt  propB    replace    propA              lt  fl let gt     lt echo gt    propB    gt    propB  lt  echo gt    lt  project gt    to overwrite exisiting property propA simply replace propB with propA

User · Answer

Here s a more generalized version of Uwe Schindler s answer   You can use a macrodef to create a custom task    lt macrodef name  replaceproperty  taskname    taskname   gt       lt attribute name  src    gt       lt attribute name  dest  default      gt       lt attribute name  replace  default      gt       lt attribute name  with  default      gt       lt sequential gt           lt loadresource property    dest   gt               lt propertyresource name    src     gt               lt filterchain gt                   lt tokenfilter gt                       lt filetokenizer  gt                       lt replacestring from    replace   to    with    gt                   lt  tokenfilter gt               lt  filterchain gt           lt  loadresource gt       lt  sequential gt   lt  macrodef gt    you can use this as follows    lt replaceproperty src  property1  dest  property2  replace     with      gt    this will be pretty useful if you are doing this multiple times

User · Answer

Just an FYI for answer Replacing characters in Ant property - if you are trying to use this inside of a maven execution  you can t reference maven variables directly   You will need something like this        lt target gt   lt property name  propATemp  value    propA    gt       lt loadresource property  propB  gt       lt propertyresource name  propATemp    gt

User · Answer

In case you want a solution that does use Ant built-ins only  consider this    lt target name  replace-spaces  gt       lt property name  propA  value  This is a value    gt       lt echo message    propA   file  some tmp file    gt       lt loadfile property  propB  srcFile  some tmp file  gt           lt filterchain gt               lt tokenfilter gt                   lt replaceregex pattern     replace     flags  g   gt               lt  tokenfilter gt           lt  filterchain gt       lt  loadfile gt       lt echo message     propB     amp quot   propB  amp quot     gt   lt  target gt    Output is   propB     This is a value

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