Re: mini string search library

From:
Daniel Pitts <newsgroup.spamfilter@virtualinfinity.net>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.java.help
Date:
Fri, 05 Sep 2008 08:10:59 -0700
Message-ID:
<48c14b9f$0$4495$7836cce5@newsrazor.net>
Roedy Green wrote:

You might find these simple string searching tools useful,
particularly if you do a lot of screen scraping.

package com.mindprod.poster;

/**
 * Methods for searching strings for multiple targets.
 * Especially useful for screen scraping.
 */
public class StringSearch
    {
    // -------------------------- PUBLIC STATIC METHODS
--------------------------

    /**
     * find first of a number of possible targets.
     *
     * @param s String to search in
     * @param targets multiple targets to search for
     * @return index of the first matching target, -1 if none of the
targets match.
     */
    public static int indexOf( String s, String... targets )
        {
        int result = -1;
        for ( String target : targets )
            {
            final int place = s.indexOf( target );
            if ( 0 <= place && ( place < result || result < 0 ) )
                {
                result = place;
                }
            }
        return result;
        }

    /**
     * find first of a number of possible targets.
     *
     * @param s String to search in
     * @param base offset where to start looking
     * @param targets multiple targets to search for
     * @return index of the first matching target, -1 if none of the
targets match.
     */
    public static int indexOf( String s, int base, String... targets )
        {
        int result = -1;
        for ( String target : targets )
            {
            final int place = s.indexOf( target, base );
            if ( 0 <= place && ( place < result || result < 0 ) )
                {
                result = place;
                }
            }
        return result;
        }

    /**
     * find first of a number of possible targets
     *
     * @param s String to search in
     * @param targets multiple targets to search for
     * @return index of char one past the end of the first matching
target, -1 if none of the targets match.
     */
    public static int indexOfEnd( String s, String... targets )
        {
        int result = -1;
        int length = 0;
        for ( String target : targets )
            {
            final int place = s.indexOf( target );
            if ( 0 <= place && ( place < result || result < 0 ) )
                {
                result = place;
                length = target.length();
                }
            }
        return result + length;
        }

    /**
     * find first of a number of possible targets
     *
     * @param s String to search in
     * @param base offset where to start looking
     * @param targets multiple targets to search for
     * @return index of char one past the end of the first matching
target, -1 if none of the targets match.
     */
    public static int indexOfEnd( String s, int base, String...
targets )
        {
        int result = -1;
        int length = 0;
        for ( String target : targets )
            {
            final int place = s.indexOf( target, base );
            if ( 0 <= place && ( place < result || result < 0 ) )
                {
                result = place;
                length = target.length();
                }
            }
        return result + length;
        }

    /**
     * find last of a number of possible targets, one closest to the
end
     *
     * @param s String to search in
     * @param targets multiple targets to search for
     * @return index of the first matching target, -1 if none of the
targets match.
     */
    public static int lastIndexOf( String s, String... targets )
        {
        int result = -1;
        for ( String target : targets )
            {
            final int place = s.lastIndexOf( target );
            if ( 0 <= place && ( result < place || result < 0 ) )
                {
                result = place;
                }
            }
        return result;
        }

    /**
     * find last of a number of possible targets, one closest to the
end
     *
     * @param s String to search in
     * @param base offset where to start looking
     * @param targets multiple targets to search for
     * @return index of the first matching target, -1 if none of the
targets match.
     */
    public static int lastIndexOf( String s, int base, String...
targets )
        {
        int result = -1;
        for ( String target : targets )
            {
            final int place = s.lastIndexOf( target, base );
            if ( 0 <= place && ( result < place || result < 0 ) )
                {
                result = place;
                }
            }
        return result;
        }

    /**
     * find last of a number of possible targets, one closest to the
end
     *
     * @param s String to search in
     * @param targets multiple targets to search for
     * @return index of the char one past the matching target that
starts closest to the end, -1 if none of the targets match.
     */
    public static int lastIndexOfEnd( String s, String... targets )
        {
        int result = -1;
        int length = 0;
        for ( String target : targets )
            {
            final int place = s.lastIndexOf( target );
            if ( 0 <= place && ( result < place || result < 0 ) )
                {
                result = place;
                length = target.length();
                }
            }
        return result + length;
        }

    /**
     * find last of a number of possible targets, one closest to the
end
     *
     * @param s String to search in
     * @param base offset where to start looking
     * @param targets multiple targets to search for
     * @return index of the char one past the matching target that
starts closest to the end, -1 if none of the targets match.
     */
    public static int lastIndexOfEnd( String s, int base, String...
targets )
        {
        int result = -1;
        int length = 0;
        for ( String target : targets )
            {
            final int place = s.lastIndexOf( target, base );
            if ( 0 <= place && ( result < place || result < 0 ) )
                {
                result = place;
                length = target.length();
                }
            }
        return result + length;
        }
    }


Nice, although for such a wide-use library, I think I would avoid an
o(n*m*l) algorithm. I might start out by building an FSA from the
targets, and running the input through it. This approach is O((m*l) +
(n)) (where n is the s.length, l is the average length of the targets,
and m is the number of targets)

--
Daniel Pitts' Tech Blog: <http://virtualinfinity.net/wordpress/>

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