Java tutorial
public class MainClass { public static void main(String args[]) { String firstString = "This sentence ends in 5 stars *****"; String secondString = "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8"; System.out.printf("Original String 1: %s\n", firstString); // replace first three digits with 'digit' for (int i = 0; i < 3; i++) secondString = secondString.replaceFirst("\\d", "digit"); System.out.printf("First 3 digits replaced by \"digit\" : %s\n", secondString); } }