ReplaceAll with metacharacter

Question

Hi all
I need to replace a String contains $ sign with another String contains $sign. Since $ sign have special meaning and need to add metacharacter between the message. I have some problem when the String used for replacement have $ sign. A exception generated
java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Illegal group reference
Here are my coding
import java.util.regex.Pattern;
import java.util.regex.Matcher;
public final class ReplaceTest {
    private static String REGEX = "\\Q$person.firstName $person.lastName<br/>\\E";
    private static String INPUT = "<p>#foreach($person in $personList)<br />$person.firstName $person.lastName<br/>#end</p>";
    private static String REPLACE = "\\$person.firstName1 \\$person.lastName1<br/>";
    private static String REPLACE1 = "\\Q$person.firstName1 $person.lastName1<br/>\\E";
    public static void main(String[] argv) {
        Pattern p = Pattern.compile(REGEX);
        Matcher m = p.matcher(INPUT);
        INPUT = m.replaceAll(REPLACE);
        System.out.println(INPUT);
}using REPLACE without problem but not REPLACE1. Since this String will read from file rather than input at coding level, I cannot add backslash in front of every $. Any solution for this? Thanks.
regards
wayne

Answer 1

Surfing 1.5 days and found the solution finally.
http://forum.java.sun.com/thread.jspa?threadID=561335&messageID=2760175