Java String.replaceFirst() that takes a “starting from” argument

Question

I need to replace a word in a string looking like \"duh duh something else duh\". I only need to replace the second \"duh\", but the first and the last ones need to stay unt

Answer 1

An alternative using Matcher:

 String input = "duh duh something else duh";
 Pattern p = Pattern.compile("duh");
 Matcher m = p.matcher(input);
 int startIndex = 4;

 String output;

 if (m.find(startIndex)) {
     StringBuffer sb = new StringBuffer();
     m.appendReplacement(sb, "dog");
     m.appendTail(sb);
     output = sb.toString();
 } else {
     output = input;
 }