string question

[neo_the_1]

hello,

i have a string and i need to push the '\' char before all regex special chars like $ . * and so on.
any idea how to do that ?

thanks

[keang]

The backslash character marks the start of an escape sequence so if you actually want a backslash character to appear in your string you need to use a double backslash ie '\\' which is the escape sequence for a single backslash character.

[spoon!]

If you are using Java 1.5+ you should use Pattern.quote() to quote a string. Otherwise, just put \Q and \E around the string (that would be "\\Q" and "\\E" of course, when written out). These special forms quote the things between them.