The preceding() method of java.text.BreakIterator class is used to get the index of the character of the last boundary preceding the boundary of specified character offset. It provides the offset of the first character of boundary which follows or precedes the current boundary pointed by BreakIterator.
Syntax:
public int preceding(int offset)
Parameter: it takes offset of the character for which the previous boundary has to be found.
Return Value: This method provides the index of boundary which precedes the specified character offset.
Exception: This method throws IllegalArgumentException if the specified index is less than the first text boundary or greater than the last text boundary.
Below are the examples to illustrate the preceding() method:
Example 1:
// Java program to demonstrate preceding() method  import java.text.*;import java.util.*;import java.io.*;  public class GFG {    public static void main(String[] argv)    {        // creating and initializing with zero        int current = 0, next = 0;          // creating and initializing BreakIterator        BreakIterator wb            = BreakIterator.getWordInstance();          // setting text for BreakIterator        wb.setText("Code Geeks");          // setting the current position to 11        // by skipping 3 boundaries        wb.next(3);          // getting the current text boundary        current = wb.current();          // display the result        System.out.println(            "current position before"            + " calling preceding() : "            + current);          // calling preceding() method        next = wb.preceding(6);          // display the result        System.out.println(            "\ncurrent position after"            + " calling 1st preceding() : "            + next);          // calling preceding() method        next = wb.preceding(11);          // display the result        System.out.println(            "\ncurrent position after"            + " calling 2nd preceding() : "            + next);    }} |
Output:
current position before calling preceding() : 11 current position after calling 1st preceding() : 4 current position after calling 2nd preceding() : 6
Example 2:
// Java program to demonstrate preceding() method  import java.text.*;import java.util.*;import java.io.*;  public class GFG {    public static void main(String[] argv)    {        try {            // creating and initializing with zero            int current = 0, next = 0;              // creating and initializing BreakIterator            BreakIterator wb                = BreakIterator.getWordInstance();              // setting text for BreakIterator            wb.setText("Code Geeks");              // setting the current position to 11            // by skipping 3 boundaries            wb.next(3);              // getting the current text boundary            current = wb.current();              // display the result            System.out.println(                "current position before"                + " calling preceding() : "                + current);              // calling preceding() method            next = wb.preceding(6);              // display the result            System.out.println(                "\ncurrent position after"                + " calling 1st preceding() : "                + next);              // calling preceding() method            next = wb.preceding(-1);              // display the result            System.out.println(                "\ncurrent position after"                + " calling 2nd preceding() : "                + next);        }        catch (IllegalArgumentException e) {              System.out.println(                "\noffset is less than the first boundary");            System.out.println("Exception thrown : " + e);        }    }} |
Output:
current position before calling preceding() : 11 current position after calling 1st preceding() : 4 offset is less than the first boundary Exception thrown : java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: offset out of bounds
Reference: https://docs.oracle.com/javase/9/docs/api/java/text/BreakIterator.html#preceding-int-
