Thread: How do i remove a substring from an element in an array

for(int i=0;i<entries.size();i++){

//if it has java or the correct answer it will say its valid
// if not it will remove the element from the array

if(entries.get(i).contains("java")){
System.out.println("Is valid");
}else if(entries.get(i).contains(correctAnswer)){
System.out.println("Is valid");
}else{
entries.remove(entries.get(i));
}
}

//create a new list that will store the winners
ArrayList<String> winners = new ArrayList<String>();
//generate random number from 0 to 100
int rand = (int)(Math.random() * 100);
//while the array size is less then the prizeCount add another random element from array "entries"
//until it is the same size as the prizeCount
while(winners.size()<prizeCount){
winners.add(entries.get(rand));
}

return winners;
//remove java and correct answer from the elements in the list
for(int i=0; i<winners.size();i++){


this bit here is where im lost im trying to remove a substring from the array of elements and return the array in assecding order
so ill have java <answer> john 0872972956
turned into john 0872972956
and have the list of names and numbers in alphabetical order.
your help would be much appreciated and im sry if its not clear what i dont know

okay first of all how do i post my code neatly like yours and ill show u the question we were given, ur code is hard to understand cus im terrible at java, and i didnt post all the code.

In a radio programme quiz the entrants text their answers to a specified number. The text must start with the word JAVA followed by the answer (in angle brackets <> as <answer>) and then the entrants name and phone number. Any number of spaces can be used to separate the parts of the text but there is always at least one space between each part. The answer is always a single word or letter so there are no spaces in the answer. For example, the following are all valid entries
JAVA <ANSWER> EDSGAR DIJSKTRA 023 7897654
java <answer> donald knuth 056 54388765
JaVA <Answer> Superman 999
jAvA <answer> Wirth,Niklaus 082 75123423

The entries have been stored in an ArrayList of Strings declared as follows
ArrayList<String> entries ;
Write the code to for a method with the following header

public ArrayList<String> winners(ArrayList<String> entries, String correctAnswer, int prizeCount)

The method is passed an ArrayList containing ALL the entries, a string containing the correct answer (without angle brackets) and an integer indicating the number of prizes available.
The method should remove any entries that do not start with the word JAVA as well as those that do not have the correct answer. The method then randomly chooses prizeCount entries from the remaining correct entries and these entries are deemed to be the winners. Note, it is possible that the number of correct entries could be less than prizeCount. In that case all of the correct entries are chosen as winners.
The winners are returned in an ArrayList of Strings that contains the original entry with the word JAVA and the answer removed - only the name and phone number are left. The strings should be sorted by ascending entrant name, which will now be at the start of the string. Because the names may be submitted in all sorts of styles just sort the list using the names as they were submitted. DO NOT try to identify the surname and first name parts - it is NOT required.
thanks for your help