How to merge arraylist element?

Question

I have `a string example = "this site holds all the examples from The Java Developers Almanac and more. Copy and paste these examples directly into your applications"

after token and do some i want on string example i have arraylist like :

ArrayList <token > arl = " "this site holds ", "holds all the examples ", "the examples from The Java Developers", " Copy and paste " )

"this site holds ", i know position start and end in string test : star = 1 end = 3 " holds all the examples ", i know position stat = 3 end = 6, "the examples from The Java Developers", i know position stat = 5 end =10, "Copy and paste" i know position stat = 14 end = 17,

we can see,some element in arl overlaping :"this site holds ","holds all the examples ","the examples from The Java Developers".

The problem here is how can i merge overlaping element to recived arraylist like

ArrayList result ="" this site holds all the examples from The Java Developers","" Copy and paste"";

Here my code : but it only merge fist elecment if check is element overloaping

public ArrayList<TextChunks> finalTextChunks(ArrayList<TextChunks> textchunkswithkeyword) {
 ArrayList<TextChunks > result = (ArrayList<TextChunks>) textchunkswithkeyword.clone();
 //System.out.print(result.size());
 int j;
 for(int i=0;i< result.size() ;i++) {
 int index = i;
 if(i+1>=result.size()){
 break;
 }
 j=i+1;
 if(result.get(i).checkOverlapingTwoTextchunks(result.get(j))== true) {
 TextChunks temp = new TextChunks();
 temp = handleOverlaping(textchunkswithkeyword.get(i),textchunkswithkeyword.get(j),resultSearchEngine);
 result.set(i, temp);
 result.remove(j);
 i = index;
 continue;
 }
 }
 return result; 
 }
}

Thanks in avadce

• jasonmp85: I'm not sure that I understand what you're asking for. Could you clarify your question? Perhaps by using a sample string that doesn't look like part of a question?
• tiendv: Sory because my english weak, i have been edit my question , hope you can understand !

Answer 1

The following should do it or at least illustrates an idea for merging the chunks. Basically I'm destroying the existing chunks and recreate new ones. Sounds horrible but simplifies a lot. I just store the words in a List and iterate over that word list to build new (merged!) chunks.

private List<TextChunks> finalTextChunks(List<TextChunks> textchunkswithkeyword) {
 private List<TextChunks> result = new ArrayList<TextChunk>();
 private List<String> wordList = new ArrayList<String>();
 // store all words in an arraylist, words are stored at their correct positions,
 // ignored words from the original text are represented by null entries
 for (TextChunks chunk : textchunkswithkeyword) {
 int start = chunk.getStartTextchunks();
 List<Token> tokens = chunk.getTokens(); // TODO - implement getTokens() in TextChunks class
 for (int i = 0; i < tokens.length; i++) {
 wordList.set(start+i, tokens.get(i).toString()); // TODO - overwrite toString() in Token class
 }
 }
 // recreate the chunks
 int start = 0;
 boolean isChunk = false;
 StringBuilder chunkBuilder;
 for (int i = 0; i < wordList.size(); i++) {
 String word = wordList.get(i);
 if (word == null) {
 if (isChunk) {
 // end of chunk detected
 TextChunk chunk = new TextChunk(chunkBuilder.toString().split(" "), start, i);
 result.add(chunk);
 isChunk = false;
 } else {
 // do nothing
 }
 } else {
 if (isChunk) {
 // chunk gets longer by one word
 chunkBuilder.append(" ").append(word);
 } else {
 // new chunk starts here
 chunkBuilder = new StringBuilder(word);
 start = i;
 isChunk = true;
 }
 }
 if (isChunk) {
 // create and add the last chunk
 TextChunks chunk = new TextChunk(chunkBuilder.toString(), start, wordList.size()-1);
 result.add(chunk);
 }
 return result;
}

(Warning - absolutely not tested, I have neither an IDE nor a compiler at hand)

EDIT

changed the code - you said, that the TextChunk class holds a token (words?) array. It was just three simple modifications.

EDIT 2

Final edit - I partially adapted my code to your classes. What you need to do:

1. implement a getTokens() method in TextChunks that simply returns the arrt field
2. implement a TextChunks constructor that takes a String (with space-separated words), the start and the end. Your Token class already provides a static method to convert the String in an arraylist of tokens
3. overwrite toString() method in Token class so that simply returns the token String.

• tiendv: Thanks for your help , but i think, your way can't help me . My application have two class : - Class token { String } a Token is a string : in this class have some method like : remove space, make arraytoken from string . - Class textchunk {array token . int start , int end } class textchunk extend token have array token and two value start and end . So inside Textchunk is array token (string)
• tiendv: You can see my code for understand thing i can't explan clearly !
• Andreas Dolk: @tiendv - I've seen, you've removed your positive vote from my answer. It's somewhat frustrating because it took quite a while understanding your question and your code and providing a practical solution. What did you expect?
• tiendv: @Andreas : I don't mean that, because my mouse have problem when it move in srceen and click in that positive and i show " Your vote is now locked in unless this answer is edited (click on this box to dismiss) " I don't know how to repair it . Hope you understand ! Thanks for your help ! I try to got your idea for fix my proplem !
• Andreas Dolk: @tiendv - smile - no problem, sorry for that misunderstanding, it just confused me bit ;) I edited my answer so you can - if you want - vote again. Good luck with your project! :-))