[SOLVED] replacing a string within list of strings

replacing a string within list of strings

I was trying to replace a string within a list of strings

var keys=List("a.SITE", "a.SITEID")

var column_expr="coalesce(nullif(SITENAME ,''),'UNKNOWN')"

keys = keys.map(element=>element.replace("SITEID",column_expr))

println(keys)

which prints as:

List(a.SITE, a.coalesce(nullif(SITENAME ,''),'UNKNOWN'))

I was expecting something like below:

List(a.SITE, coalesce(nullif(SITENAME ,''),'UNKNOWN'))

I don't want alias 'a' to be present in the final list. It can have any character. like a,b or c etc.

FYI.. Other part of logic prevents me to pass it as a.SITEID. I can only pass the column name.

Solution

Following may be what you are looking for:

val keys = List("a.SITE", "a.SITEID")

val columnExpr = "coalesce(nullif(SITENAME ,''),'UNKNOWN')"

val updatedKeys = keys.map(_.replaceAll(".*\\.SITEID", columnExpr))

println(updatedKeys)
//List(a.SITE, coalesce(nullif(SITENAME ,''),'UNKNOWN'))

The replaceAll(".*\\.", "") removes everything before and including the last dot. So please make sure that is what you need. Also, I have changed mutable variables to immutable ones to make them more functional.