Breaking up text / tokenisers / etc

Question

Hi.
Basically, the intended function of this is to convert this user input:
System 2:290
Slot      Name (activity)      Moon      Deb      Player (status)      Alliance      Actions
1                               
2                               
3                               
4      mampara                stick it (i v)      RoyalG.C      Espionage write message Buddy request
5      ricochet                Man on fire (i v)      RoLUE      Espionage write message Buddy request
6      Marte                Ninrod (n)           Espionage write message Buddy request
7      Larissa                han (v)           Espionage write message Buddy request
8      Colony                Haxor      INC.WING      Espionage write message Buddy request
9      HeroEarth      moon           Blackmage (v)      IPC      Espionage write message Buddy request
10      Homeworld                alek11 (i v)           Espionage write message Buddy request
11      G2-2      moon           Optimax      T.L.S      
12      Colony                Alphidlus      MoA      View Espionage Report Espionage write message Buddy request
13      fujimama                adam15243 (n)      DTSB      Espionage write message Buddy request
14                               
15      Shan0                Kopaleto (v)      BBA.EF      Espionage write message Buddy request
16     Outer Space
(11 planets colonized )      Legend
1 Espionage probe(s)         1 of 11 slot(s) in useAnd for each line with a number (1 --> 15) next to it, produce:
planetName (This is the next bit after the number, e.g for line 9 the planetName is HeroEarth)
moon (This is set either by the word moon exisiting, or not, e.g line 9 has a moon, line 10 dosn't).
playerName (This is the next bit after moon (if a moon exists) or is after the planet name..e.g line 11 is Blackmage, line 10 is alek11)
alliance (This bit is the bit after the playerName, which is not in brackets, e.g line 9 the alliance is IPC).
Now i'm using various methods to clear the whitespace etc. Here is the code that i'm currently using (its a mess, and probably not the best method at all).
        Scanner s = null;
        try {
            s = new Scanner(new BufferedReader(new StringReader(spyReportText.getText())));
            s.useDelimiter("Espionage write message Buddy request");
            while (s.hasNext()) {
                // This has sorted it into an unsorted row
                // 9      HeroEarth      moon           Blackmage (v)      IPC
                // 10      Homeworld                alek11 (i v)
                // System.out.println(removeSpaces(s.next()));
                StringTokenizer st = new StringTokenizer(removeSpaces(s.next()), " ");
                    while (st.hasMoreTokens()) {
                        System.out.println(st.nextToken());
        } finally {
            if (s != null) {
                s.close();
    static String removeSpaces(String withSpaces) {
        java.util.StringTokenizer t = new java.util.StringTokenizer(withSpaces, "     ");
        StringBuffer result = new StringBuffer("");
        while (t.hasMoreTokens()) {
            result.append(t.nextToken());
        return result.toString();
    }To an extent that is working, the output from it gives me tokens, however I have no idea how to go about assigning the tokens to the variables I described, because the token number change per line. For example having a moon affects whether the playerName token is the 2nd or 3rd token.
I'd like a bit of feedback on how you'd approach the problem, if you'd do the whole thing another way etc as i'm hitting a brick wall now.
(P.S, here is the current outcome of that code)
1
2
3
4
mampara
stick
it
(i
v)
RoyalG.C
5
ricochet
Man
on
fire
(i
v)
RoLUE
6
Marte
Ninrod
(n)
7
Larissa
han
(v)
8
Colony
Haxor
INC.WING
9
HeroEarth
moon
Blackmage
(v)
IPC
10
Homeworld
alek11
(i
v)
11
G2-2
moon
Optimax
T.L.S
12
Colony
Alphidlus
MoA
View
Espionage
Report
13
fujimama
adam15243
(n)
DTSB
14
15
Shan0
Kopaleto
(v)
BBA.EF
16Outer
Space
(11
planets
colonized
Legend
1
Espionage
probe(s)
1
of
11
slot(s)
in
useAs you can see, some of it should be easy to assign the variables:
11
G2-2
moon
Optimax
T.L.SWhereas others will be slightly harder..
9
HeroEarth
moon
Blackmage
(v)
IPC(As the alliance is IPC not (v).)
Edited by: allydm on Jan 21, 2008 8:55 PM
Edited by: allydm on Jan 21, 2008 8:57 PM

Answer 1

Ah, that's deffinatly helped to sort it much more efficiently.
Although, I'm still pretty stuck on how to get it to assign the variables corrently.
For example, the code now outputs:
4 mampara stick it (i v) RoyalG.C
From that, I need the variables...
planetSlot = 4
planetName = "mampara"
moon = 0
playerName = "stick it"
allianceName = "RoyalG.C"
Or for a planet with a moon (e.g: 9 HeroEarth moon Blackmage (v) IPC ) , the variables:
planetSlot = 9
planetName = "HeroEarth"
moon = 1
playerName = "Blackmage"
allianceName = "IPC"
I hope that makes sense, any input you can give me will help (and you've already been very helpful :) ).