Help with program to remove comments from chess(pgn) text files

Question

Hi
I would like to make a java program that will remove chessbase comments from pgn files (which are just based text files).
I have done no java programming on text files so far and so this will be a new java adventure for me. Otherwise I have limited basic java experience mainly with Java chess GUI's and java chess engines.
I show here a portion of such a pgn text file with the chessbase comments which are between the curly braces after the moves:
1. e4 {[%emt 0:00:01]} c6 {[%emt 0:00:10]} 2. d4 {[%emt 0:00:03]} d5 {
[%emt 0:00:01]} 3. e5 {[%emt 0:00:01]} Bf5 {[%emt 0:00:01]} 4. h4 {
[%emt 0:00:02]} e6 {[%emt 0:00:02]}
I want to make a java program if possible that removes these comments, so just leaving the move notation eg:
1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 Bf5 4. h4 e6
I am just starting with this. As yet I am unsure how to begin and do this and I would be extremely grateful for any help and advice to get me going with this project.
I look forward to replies, many thanks

Answer 1

I found a simple java text editor (NutPad-with sourcecode) and have tried to adapt it to incorporate the regular expressions code suggested by ChuckBing and renamed it CleanCBpgnPad.
Presently this won't compile! (not surprising).
I copy the code here:
//CleanCBpgnPad by tR2 based on NutPad text editor
// editor/NutPad.java -- A very simple text editor -- Fred Swartz - 2004-08
// Illustrates use of AbstractActions for menus.
//http://www.roseindia.net/java/java-tips/45examples/20components/editor/nutpad.shtml
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import java.io.*;
public class CleanCBpgnPad extends JFrame {
//-- Components
private JTextArea mEditArea;
private JFileChooser mFileChooser = new JFileChooser(".");
//-- Actions
private Action mOpenAction;
private Action mSaveAction;
private Action mExitAction;
private Action mCleanAction;
//===================================================================== main
public static void main(String[] args) {
new CleanCBpgnPad().setVisible(true);
}//end main
//============================================================== constructor
public CleanCBpgnPad() {
createActions();
this.setContentPane(new contentPanel());
this.setJMenuBar(createMenuBar());
this.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
this.setTitle("CleanCBpgnPad");
this.pack();
}//end constructor
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////// class contentPanel
private class contentPanel extends JPanel {       
//========================================================== constructor
contentPanel() {
//-- Create components.
mEditArea = new JTextArea(15, 80);
mEditArea.setBorder(BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(2,2,2,2));
mEditArea.setFont(new Font("monospaced", Font.PLAIN, 14));
JScrollPane scrollingText = new JScrollPane(mEditArea);
//-- Do layout
this.setLayout(new BorderLayout());
this.add(scrollingText, BorderLayout.CENTER);
}//end constructor
}//end class contentPanel
//============================================================ createMenuBar
/** Utility function to create a menubar. */
private JMenuBar createMenuBar() {
JMenuBar menuBar = new JMenuBar();
JMenu fileMenu = menuBar.add(new JMenu("File"));
fileMenu.add(mOpenAction); // Note use of actions, not text.
fileMenu.add(mSaveAction);
fileMenu.add(mCleanAction);
fileMenu.addSeparator();
fileMenu.add(mExitAction);
return menuBar;
}//end createMenuBar
//============================================================ createActions
/** Utility function to define actions. */
private void createActions() {
mOpenAction = new AbstractAction("Open...") {
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
int retval = mFileChooser.showOpenDialog(CleanCBpgnPad.this);
if (retval == JFileChooser.APPROVE_OPTION) {
File f = mFileChooser.getSelectedFile();
try {
FileReader reader = new FileReader(f);
mEditArea.read(reader, ""); // Use TextComponent read
} catch (IOException ioex) {
System.out.println(e);
System.exit(1);
mSaveAction = new AbstractAction("Save") {
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
int retval = mFileChooser.showSaveDialog(CleanCBpgnPad.this);
if (retval == JFileChooser.APPROVE_OPTION) {
File f = mFileChooser.getSelectedFile();
try {
FileWriter writer = new FileWriter(f);
mEditArea.write(writer); // Use TextComponent write
} catch (IOException ioex) {
System.out.println(e);
System.exit(1);
mCleanAction = new AbstractAction ("Clean"){
public void actionPerformed (ActionEvent e) {
int retval = mFileChooser.showCleanDialog(CleanCBpgnPad.this);
if (retval== JFileChooser.APPROVE_OPTION){
File f = mFileChooser.getSelectedFile();
try {
FileCleaner cleaner = new FileCleaner (c);
mEditArea.clean(cleaner); // Use TextComponent clean
}catch (IOException ioex){
String str = "1. e4 {[%emt 0:00:01]} c6 {[%emt 0:00:10]} 2. d4 {[%emt 0:00:03]} d5 {[%emt 0:00:01]} " + "3. e5 {[%emt 0:00:01]} Bf5 {[%emt 0:00:01]} 4. h4 {[%emt 0:00:02]} e6 {[%emt 0:00:02]}";
str = str.replaceAll("\\{.*?\\}", "");
System.out.println(str);
System.exit(1);
mExitAction = new AbstractAction("Exit") {
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
System.exit(0);
}//end createActions
}//end class CleanCBpgnPad
As seen I added a newAction mClean.
4 errors arise starting with line 101-cannot find symbol method showCleanDialog
then 3 errors on line 104 tryfilecleaner
Can anyone help me with this please?
Can I incorporate the regular expression code to remove these text comments into this text editor code and if so how?
Obviously a lot of this code is new to me and I will continue to study it and hope to learn to understand most , if not all of it!
Again I look forward to replies,thanks