title: How to find specific substrings (that can be very similar) and do different things with them in java
body: <p>I am writing a program that takes in a file and extracts data from a single string within the file. I run into a problem when I try to separate the substrings in the way that I want. The goal is to separate the larger chunks of the line from other large chunks without separating the smaller  chunks within the larger chunk (separated by commas).</p>
  
  <p>An example of the file contents would be this: (Although it is slightly long, the files I have may vary from short lists like this to 50 or even to 100 blocks of item sets)</p>
  
  <pre><code>{"timeStamp":1477474644345,"itemSets":[{"mode":"any","sortrank":4999,"type":"custom","priority":false,"isGlobalForMaps":true,"uid":"LOL_D957E9EC-39E4-943E-C55E-52B63E05D99C","isGlobalForChampions":false,"associatedMaps":[],"associatedChampions":[40],"blocks":[{"type":"starting","items":[{"id":"3303","count":1},{"id":"2031","count":1},{"id":"1082","count":1},{"id":"3340","count":1},{"id":"3363","count":1},{"id":"2043","count":1},{"id":"3364","count":1}]},{"type":"Support Build Items","items":[{"id":"2049","count":1},{"id":"1001","count":1},{"id":"3165","count":1},{"id":"3117","count":1},{"id":"2301","count":1},{"id":"3089","count":1},{"id":"3135","count":1},{"id":"3504","count":1}]},{"type":"AP Build Items","items":[{"id":"3165","count":1},{"id":"3020","count":1},{"id":"3089","count":1},{"id":"3135","count":1},{"id":"3285","count":1},{"id":"3116","count":1}]},{"type":"Other Items (Situational Items)","items":[{"id":"3026","count":1},{"id":"3285","count":1},{"id":"3174","count":1},{"id":"3001","count":1},{"id":"3504","count":1}]}],"title":"Janna Items","map":"any"},{"mode":"any","sortrank":0,"type":"custom","priority":false,"isGlobalForMaps":false,"uid":"LOL_F265D25A-EA44-5B86-E37A-C91BD73ACB4F","isGlobalForChampions":true,"associatedMaps":[10],"associatedChampions":[],"blocks":[{"type":"Searching","items":[{"id":"3508","count":1},{"id":"3031","count":1},{"id":"3124","count":1},{"id":"3072","count":1},{"id":"3078","count":1},{"id":"3089","count":1}]}],"title":"TEST","map":"any"}]}
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>The code I have attempted to write tries to separate this into meaningful chunks, here is what I have written so far:</p>
  
  <pre><code>        cutString = dataFromFile.substring(dataFromFile.indexOf("itemSets\":") + 11, dataFromFile.indexOf("},{"));
          stringContinue = dataFromFile.substring(cutString.length());
          while(stringContinue.contains("},{"))
          {
              //Do string manipulation to cut every part and re-attach it, then re-check to find if this ("},{\"id") is not there
              if(stringContinue.contains("},{\"id"))
              {
                  //if(stringContinue.equals(anObject))
                  cutString = cutString + stringContinue.substring(0, stringContinue.indexOf("},{\"id"));
              }
              else if(stringContinue.contains("},{\"count"))
              {
                  cutString = cutString + stringContinue.substring(0, stringContinue.indexOf("},{\"count"));
              }
              else if(stringContinue.contains("},{"))
              {
                  cutString = cutString + stringContinue.substring(0, stringContinue.indexOf("},{"));
              }
  
              stringContinue = stringContinue.substring(cutString.length());
  
              //Check if we see a string pattern that is the cut off point
              //if()
              //System.out.println(stringContinue);
              System.out.println(cutString);
          }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>But when I run it, I get an output like this:</p>
  
  <pre><code>{"mode":"any","sortrank":4999,"type":"custom","priority":false,"isGlobalForMaps":true,"uid":"LOL_D957E9EC-39E4-943E-C55E-52B63E05D99C","isGlobalForChampions":false,"associatedMaps":[],"associatedChampions":[40],"blocks":[{"type":"starting","items":[{"id":"3303","count":1arting","items":[{"id":"3303","count":1
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>The output I want to achieve is this:</p>
  
  <pre><code>{"mode":"any","sortrank":4999,"type":"custom","priority":false,"isGlobalForMaps":true,"uid":"LOL_D957E9EC-39E4-943E-C55E-52B63E05D99C","isGlobalForChampions":false,"associatedMaps":[],"associatedChampions":[40],"blocks":[{"type":"starting","items":[{"id":"3303","count":1},{"id":"2031","count":1},{"id":"1082","count":1},{"id":"3340","count":1},{"id":"3363","count":1},{"id":"2043","count":1},{"id":"3364","count":1}]},{"type":"Support Build Items","items":[{"id":"2049","count":1},{"id":"1001","count":1},{"id":"3165","count":1},{"id":"3117","count":1},{"id":"2301","count":1},{"id":"3089","count":1},{"id":"3135","count":1},{"id":"3504","count":1}]},{"type":"AP Build Items","items":[{"id":"3165","count":1},{"id":"3020","count":1},{"id":"3089","count":1},{"id":"3135","count":1},{"id":"3285","count":1},{"id":"3116","count":1}]},{"type":"Other Items (Situational Items)","items":[{"id":"3026","count":1},{"id":"3285","count":1},{"id":"3174","count":1},{"id":"3001","count":1},{"id":"3504","count":1}]}],"title":"Janna Items","map":"any"}
  
  {"mode":"any","sortrank":0,"type":"custom","priority":false,"isGlobalForMaps":false,"uid":"LOL_F265D25A-EA44-5B86-E37A-C91BD73ACB4F","isGlobalForChampions":true,"associatedMaps":[10],"associatedChampions":[],"blocks":[{"type":"Searching","items":[{"id":"3508","count":1},{"id":"3031","count":1},{"id":"3124","count":1},{"id":"3072","count":1},{"id":"3078","count":1},{"id":"3089","count":1}]}],"title":"TEST","map":"any"}
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>So then my question is how do I check for the point where I can separate the blocks without getting java to detect the same pattern that it uses to separate the smaller chunks? Basically I am looking for a pattern like this ("},{"), but not this ("},{\"id:") or this ("},{\count:"). Is there any other things that the String Class can offer for functionality that is similar that i am not aware of?</p>
  
  <p>Edit: Although using a json parser would make things easier and convenient for this type of problem, another one rises because it would make the program only take in json files. This question is more for string manipulation and trying to find a part of the string that can separate the large blocks of information without touching or changing (very minimally as possible) the smaller blocks that have the same way of separation. So far regex and splitting strings to be re-attached later seems to be the way to go unless there is a more clear-cut answer.</p>