I want to extract the string from the input string with "/" removed from the beginning and the end (if present).
For example :
Input String : /abcd Output String : abcd
Input String : /abcd/ Output String : abcd
Input String : abcd/ Output String : abcd
Input String : abcd Output String : abcd
Input String : //abcd/ Output String : /abcd
public static void main(String[] args) { String abcd1 = "/abcd/"; String abcd2 = "/abcd"; String abcd3 = "abcd/"; String abcd4 = "abcd"; System.out.println(abcd1.replaceAll("(^/)?(/$)?", "")); System.out.println(abcd2.replaceAll("(^/)?(/$)?", "")); System.out.println(abcd3.replaceAll("(^/)?(/$)?", "")); System.out.println(abcd4.replaceAll("(^/)?(/$)?", "")); } Will work.
Matches the first (^/)? means match 0 or 1 '/' at the beginning of the string, and (/$)? means match 0 or 1 '/' at the end of the string.
Make the regex "(^/*)?(/*$)?" to support matching multiple '/':
String abcd5 = "//abcd///"; System.out.println(abcd1.replaceAll("(^/*)?(/*$)?", "")); One more guess: ^\/|\/$ for replace RegEx.
Method without regex:
String input = "/hello world/"; int length = input.length(), from = input.charAt(0) == '/' ? 1 : 0, to = input.charAt(length - 1) == '/' ? length - 1 : length; String output = input.substring(from, to); You can try
String original="/abc/"; original.replaceAll("/",""); Then do call trim to avoid white spaces.
original.trim(); 
This one seems works :
/?([a-zA-Z]+)/? Explanation :
/? : zero or one repetition
([a-zA-Z]+) : capture alphabetic caracter, one or more repetition
/? : zero or one repetition
