Parse a long file

Question

Hello,
I have to parse a long file....the concept of that file it is that there are several billings included, and for each billing it is separated for an special escape character ( FF character , i tihnk it tells the printer to skip page )
Well, I have some java experience , but I dont know regular expressions in java...I need the following for instance:
COORSERPARK LTDA                                        NIT :      800,215,065-4
                                                            FACTURA DE VENTA No.   :  F-003-00000060466
                       SANTAFE DE BOGOTA, FEBRERO    01 DE 2008
                       SENOR(ES)
                       CAVIDA                                                  NIT :      830,100,838-5
                       CAVIDA                                                  NIT :      830,100,838-5FOR "FACTURA DE VENTA No. : F-003-00000060466" , I have to get the billing number which is F-003-00000060466 , do u know a regular expression for that ?
Also for instance a line like this
PLAN XXXXXXX                         11                                        9,215.00        101,365.00, where XXXXXXX might be any name
I need to get the values PLAN XXXXXX , *11* , *101,365.00* it would be perfect if i get them in an array, so i know that first position corresponds to X value, second corresponds to Y value, and so on
There are not tabs between values, but just certain amout of spaces , which might vary
Thanks in advance,
deibys

Answer 1

It may seem trivial, but if strings are fixed (FACTURA DE VENTA No. will always be the same and the same for PLAN), I would search for those strings (first by reading all document into a string variable) inside the document, and having the position of the end of that string, go on parsing ignoring white spaces and storing all "non-space" data found (if you are looking for a price, you know it won't have spaces, or if you're looking for a code you also know it would have no spaces or maybe it would have fixed length)...I know it's dirty but it would surely work.
I repeat, it's not smart but it will work with few code (I suppose :) ).
P.S. I hate regular expressions :)
Edited by: scuffia on Jan 31, 2008 9:27 PM