How to remove all type of prefix salutation from string in java?

Question

Suppose I have string coming from Input with name (for eg: Mr . Aditya Jha). How do I remove salutation from the start of input?

List of salutations that can come are:

Mr, Mrs, Dr, Miss, Ms, Rev, Mr. , Mr. , Dr. , Miss. , Ms. , Rev. , Mr . , Mr . , Dr . , Miss . , Ms . , Rev .

Any solution or regex statement which can consider all of these salutations?

I tried this:

name.replaceAll("\\s{2,}", " ").replaceFirst("(?i)(Mr . )", "").replaceFirst("(?i)(Mr |Mr. )", "").trim()

It is working, but for name like amra khan, it is removing mr.

I have to use replace two times--First to remove the third possibility, then to remove the first two. Is there any better approach ? — Aditya Jha IN, Apr 07 '20 at 11:09
Yes there are a solution, just use `Mr\s*\.?\\s* ` some people here close and down-vote question and answer for that I removed my correct answer — YCF_L, Apr 07 '20 at 11:18
Does it mean you only need to replace it at the start of the string? Try `.replaceFirst("(?i)^\\s*Mr\\b[\\s.]*", "")`. If anywhere inside the string, use ``.replaceFirst("(?i)\\bMr\\b[\\s.]*", "")``. — Wiktor Stribiżew, Apr 07 '20 at 11:33
I tried this : name.replaceAll("\\s{2,}", " ").replaceFirst("(?i)(Mr . )", "").replaceFirst("(?i)(Mr |Mr. )", "").trim(); It is working, but for name like amra khan, it is removing mr — Aditya Jha IN, Apr 10 '20 at 13:00
Also, this is only one salutation. I have a exhaustive list of 20 saluations (like Mrs. , Dr. , Rev. etc) that has also to be removed if they come with the name. — Aditya Jha IN, Apr 10 '20 at 13:08
So, please add all the relevant details to the question. Also, when you provide feedback, add `@` and user name for the user to get notified of this feedback. — Wiktor Stribiżew, Apr 10 '20 at 15:34
So, this is still not clear if these salutations come at the start of string, or anywhere in the string. Try `"(?i)\\b(M(?:iss|rs?|s)|Dr|Rev)\\b[\\s.]*"` with `replaceAll`, see [this regex demo](https://regex101.com/r/AWkbvZ/1). — Wiktor Stribiżew, Apr 10 '20 at 15:36
@WiktorStribiżew updated the question with relevant details — Aditya Jha IN, Apr 10 '20 at 16:02
But please revert your attempt. Please see the comments, please provide feedback. I believe [my last suggestion](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/61078462/how-to-remove-all-type-of-prefix-salutation-from-string-in-java?noredirect=1#comment108168907_61078462) covers all your cases. — Wiktor Stribiżew, Apr 10 '20 at 16:03
@WiktorStribiżew It worked for me. I tried this: replaceFirst("(?i)^(Rev|Prof|Ms|Miss|Smt|Sri|Shri|Shree|Mrs|Mr|Dr|Jr|Sr)(\\s\\.|\\.|)\\s", "" ) — Aditya Jha IN, Apr 10 '20 at 16:16

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 10 '20 at 16:21

You may use

name = name.replaceAll("\\s{2,}", " ").replaceFirst("(?i)^\\s*(?:M(?:iss|rs?|s)|Dr|Rev)\\b[\\s.]*", "").trim();

See the regex demo

Pattern details

(?i) - case ignoring option
^ - start of string
\s* - 0+ whitespaces
(?:M(?:iss|rs?|s)|Dr|Rev) - M followed with iss, r, rs, s, or Dr or Rev (you may add more after | here)
\b - word boundary
[\s.]* - 0 or more whitespaces or dots.

How to remove all type of prefix salutation from string in java?

1 Answers1