Splitting string into sentences using regex

Question

I'm trying to split a paragraph into sentences. At the moment I'm splitting by . which works fine but I can't seem to get it to split correctly when there's either . or ? or !

So far my code is:

String[] sentences = everything.split("(?<=[a-z])\\.\\s+");

Thanks

How about something like this:String[] sentences = everything.split("\.|\?|\!"); — Michael P, Jun 11 '15 at 23:49
Take a look at: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2687012/split-string-into-sentences-based-on-periods - it seems relevant. — dave, Jun 11 '15 at 23:51
@dave I had a look but I'm looking just to split it by `!` `.` and `?` . That regex command in the answers only seems to work for full stops — magna_nz, Jun 11 '15 at 23:55
Sorry I forgot the parenthesis String[] sentences = everything.split("(\\.|\\?|\\!)"); — Michael P, Jun 11 '15 at 23:59

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 12 '15 at 00:03

2

If you don't want to remove ., !, ? from the results.

    String[] sentences = everything.split("(?<=[a-z][!?.])\\s+");

answered Jun 12 '15 at 00:03

I want to remove the `.` `!` and `?` from results – magna_nz Jun 12 '15 at 00:05
@ magna_nz Ok, try `"(?<=[a-z])[!?.]\\s+"`. – Jun 12 '15 at 00:06

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 12 '15 at 07:31

Use a character class, and you don't need the look behind - use a word boundary instead:

String[] sentences = everything.split("\\b[.!?]\\s+");

"[.!?]" means "either ., ! or ?". The word boundary \b requires that a word character precede the end of sentence char.

Splitting string into sentences using regex

2 Answers2