How to use multiple patterns for masking/format the input text

Question

Hi All,
I am using Jdeveloper 11.1.1.5 and i have a requirement where i need to format my input Text value in these below patterns:-
Format
Example
AA9A 9AA
EC1A 1BB
A9A 9AA
W1A 1HQ
A9 9AA
M1 1AA
B33 8TH
A99 9AA
AA9 9AA
CR2 6XH
DN55 1PT
AA99 9AA
For Example :-  If user puts value as EC1A1BB, it should automatically changed to EC1A 1BB
                             if user puts value as W1A1HQ, it should be automatically changed to W1A 1HQ and so on..
If it could have been one format , i might have followed this :- https://blogs.oracle.com/jdevotnharvest/entry/get_social_security_numbers_right
But for multiple patterns i am not able to get through to the proper solution.
Is there any way to achieve this ? Please suggest.
Regards,
Shah

Answer 1

For the validation you should be able to use one regular expression where you add the logical or (|)  (check the doc http://docs.oracle.com/javase/6/docs/api/java/util/regex/Pattern.html) between the groups. If none of the patterns matches you have an error.
For the for formatting I'm not sure you can use only one expression.
I suggest to write one method which does the checking on and the formatting may be using an array of patterns to check and iterate the patterns in a loop. Once you found a match you can read the needed format from another array (or an other dimension if you prefer to use a multidimensional array).
Timo