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Removing all fraction symbols like “¼” and “½” from a string

I need to modify strings similar to "¼ cups of sugar" to "cups of sugar", meaning replacing all fraction symbols with "".

I have referred to this post and managed to remove ¼ using this line:

itemName = itemName.replaceAll("\u00BC", "");

but how do I replace every possible fraction symbol out there?

Solution

  • Fraction symbols like ¼ and ½ belong to Unicode Category Number, Other [No]. If you are ok with eliminating all 676 characters in that group, you can use the following regular expression:

    itemName = itemName.replaceAll("\\p{No}+", "");

    If not, you can always list them explicitly:

    // As characters (requires UTF-8 source file encoding)
itemName = itemName.replaceAll("[¼½¾⅐⅑⅒⅓⅔⅕⅖⅗⅘⅙⅚⅛⅜⅝⅞↉]+", "");

// As ranges using unicode escapes
itemName = itemName.replaceAll("[\u00BC-\u00BE\u2150-\u215E\u2189]+", "");