I'm trying to get Java regex working to replace specific phrases in a comma-delimited list. It should also match/replace the leading comma, and any leading/trailing whitespace. I have to use strictly Java-based regex for this solution.
For example, I have a string of BIG BOAT , GREEN CAR,BIG BOAT, YELLOW TRUCK, BIG BOAT, AMAZON ECHO, BIG BOAT , BLUE CAR , BIG BOAT BLUE, TABLE, GLASSES, BIG BOAT and I have the regex of
(?:^|,\s*)BIG BOAT(?:$|[^,]*)
This seems to work in most cases. It matches all exact instances of BIG BOAT but incorrectly matches BIG BOAT BLUE.
Your initial regex was close to what you were trying to achieve. I just changed the end part (?:$|[^,]*) with \s*(?=,|$). Basically in the end bit, you want to match every BIG BOAT followed by zero or more white spaces, and then check if they're followed by a comma or be at the end of the string.
Like so, your regex matches:
Here is the regex:
(?:^|,\s*)BIG BOAT\s*(?=,|$)
Here is a link to the regex at regex101