The replaceAll() method of the String class accepts two strings representing a regular expression and a replacement String and replaces the matched values with given String.
Following is the regular expression to match the leading zeros of a string −
The ^0+(?!$)";
To remove the leading zeros from a string pass this as first parameter and “” as second parameter.
Example
The following Java program reads an integer value from the user into a String and removes the leading zeroes from it using the Regular expressions.
import java.util.Scanner; public class LeadingZeroesRE { public static String removeLeadingZeroes(String str) { String strPattern = "^0+(?!$)"; str = str.replaceAll(strPattern, ""); return str; } public static void main(String args[]){ Scanner sc = new Scanner(System.in); System.out.println("Enter an integer: "); String num = sc.next(); String result = LeadingZeroesRE.removeLeadingZeroes(num); System.out.println(result); } }
Output
Enter an integer: 000012336000 12336000