How to split paragraphs into sentences?

java regex string split text-segmentation
JustCause picture JustCause · Jan 29, 2014 · Viewed 16.2k times · Source

Please have a look at the following.

String[]sentenceHolder = titleAndBodyContainer.split("\n|\\.(?!\\d)|(?<!\\d)\\.");

This is how I tried to split a paragraph into sentences. But, there is a problem. My paragraph includes dates like Jan. 13, 2014, words like U.S and numbers like 2.2. They all got splitted by the above code. So basically, this code splits lot of 'dots' whether it is a full stop or not.

I tried String[]sentenceHolder = titleAndBodyContainer.split(".\n"); and String[]sentenceHolder = titleAndBodyContainer.split("\\."); as well. All failed.

How can I split a paragraph into sentences "properly"?

Answer

Ruchira Gayan Ranaweera picture Ruchira Gayan Ranaweera · Jan 29, 2014

You can try this

String str = "This is how I tried to split a paragraph into a sentence. But, there is a problem. My paragraph includes dates like Jan.13, 2014 , words like U.S and numbers like 2.2. They all got split by the above code.";

Pattern re = Pattern.compile("[^.!?\\s][^.!?]*(?:[.!?](?!['\"]?\\s|$)[^.!?]*)*[.!?]?['\"]?(?=\\s|$)", Pattern.MULTILINE | Pattern.COMMENTS);
Matcher reMatcher = re.matcher(str);
while (reMatcher.find()) {
    System.out.println(reMatcher.group());
}

Output:

This is how I tried to split a paragraph into a sentence.
But, there is a problem.
My paragraph includes dates like Jan.13, 2014 , words like U.S and numbers like 2.2.
They all got split by the above code.

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