Regular expressions are powerful but tricky, and even those long used to using them can make mistakes.

The following should not be used as regular expressions:

Noncompliant Code Example

String str = "/File|Name.txt";

String clean = str.replaceAll(".",""); // Noncompliant; probably meant to remove only dot chars, but returns an empty string
String clean2 = str.replaceAll("|","_"); // Noncompliant; yields _/_F_i_l_e_|_N_a_m_e_._t_x_t_
String clean3 = str.replaceAll(File.separator,""); // Noncompliant; exception on Windows

String clean4 = str.replaceFirst(".",""); // Noncompliant;
String clean5 = str.replaceFirst("|","_"); // Noncompliant;
String clean6 = str.replaceFirst(File.separator,""); // Noncompliant;