StringIndexOutOfBounds exception

[AwesomeStorm]

Hello everyone, I'm making a small simple interpreter for school. A script looks as follows:

file.Delete('C:\text.txt');
messageBox('Deleted', 'Gone!');

My code for everything works, except that when I try to add a new command (besides messageBox) I get the exception. I don't know how to explain it any more, so here's the code and compile it for yourself:

import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import java.io.*;

public class Scripter {
    
    public static void main(String[] args) {

		ScriptFrame frmMain = new ScriptFrame();

    }
}

class ScriptFrame extends JFrame implements ActionListener{
	
	JTextArea txtScript;
	JTextArea txtConsole;
	JScrollPane scrScroll;
	JButton cmdRun;
	JButton cmdLoad;
	JButton cmdSave;
	
	public ScriptFrame(){
		
		super("DanScript");
		setVisible(true);
		setResizable(true);
		setSize(510, 550);
		setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
		
		setLayout(new FlowLayout());
		
		txtScript = new JTextArea(22, 40);
		add(new JScrollPane(txtScript));
		//txtScript.setLineWrap(true);
		txtScript.setWrapStyleWord(true);
		
		txtConsole = new JTextArea(5, 40);
		add(new JScrollPane(txtConsole));
		txtConsole.setWrapStyleWord(true);
		txtConsole.setEditable(false);
		txtConsole.setText("[---DANSCRIPT CONSOLE (Errors, etc, show up here)---]");
		
		cmdRun = new JButton("Run script");
		cmdRun.addActionListener(this);
		add(cmdRun);
		
		cmdLoad = new JButton("Open script");
		add(cmdLoad);
		
		cmdSave = new JButton("Save script");
		add(cmdSave);
	
	}
	
	public void runScript(String script){
		
			String[] arrCommands = null;
			arrCommands = script.split(";" + "\n");
			
			for(int i = 0; i < arrCommands.length; i++){
				
				//messageBox(); variables
				String strContent;
				String strTitle = getBetween(arrCommands[i], "', '", "')");
				
				//file.Delete(); variables
				String fPath;
				File f;
				
					if(arrCommands[i].startsWith("messageBox")){
					
						strContent = getBetween(arrCommands[i], "('", "', ");
						strContent = strContent.replace("('", "");
						strTitle = strTitle.replace("', '", "");
						MessageBox(strContent, strTitle);

					}else if(arrCommands[i].startsWith("file.Delete")){
						
						fPath = getBetween(arrCommands[i], "('", "');");
						fPath = fPath.replace("('", "");
						f = new File(fPath);
						
						if(!f.exists()){
							
							txtConsole.setText(txtConsole.getText() + "\n" + "[file.Delete()] file does not exist");
							return;
							
						}
						
						if(!f.canWrite()){
							
							txtConsole.setText(txtConsole.getText() + "\n" + "[file.Delete()] does not have permission");
							
						}
						
					}else{
						
						return;
						
					}
					
					
		
			}
		
	}
	public void doNothing(){
	}
	public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e){
		
		if(e.getSource() == cmdRun){
			
			runScript(txtScript.getText());
			
		}
		
	}
	
	public void MessageBox(String Message, String Title){
		
		JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(this, Message, Title, JOptionPane.INFORMATION_MESSAGE);
		
	}
	
	public void MessageBox(String Message){
		
		JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(this, Message, "DanScript", JOptionPane.INFORMATION_MESSAGE);
		
	}
	
	public static String getBetween(String search, String start, String stop) {
		int index = search.indexOf(start);
		return search.substring(index, search.indexOf(stop, index));
	}
 
	
}

I don't know what I'm doing wrong. The exception is thrown when clicking the "Run script" button. It's weird, you can do 100 messageBox() commands one after the other and they'll all work, but any other commands will mess it up. I've tried adding a comment command, some more file commands, etc, but nothing works at all because of the damn exception.

Help is greatly appreciate :)

[StormyWaters]

Can you post the stack trace of the Exception?

Also what do you expect the following to do?

			arrCommands = script.split(";" + "\n");

If I had to guess, I'd say it has something to do with the getBetween() as you are not checking for whether or not the start String is actually in the search String which would result in a -1 index which you are trying to use in the substring call.

[AwesomeStorm]

Can you post the stack trace of the Exception?

Also what do you expect the following to do?

			arrCommands = script.split(";" + "\n");

If I had to guess, I'd say it has something to do with the getBetween() as you are not checking for whether or not the start String is actually in the search String which would result in a -1 index which you are trying to use in the substring call.

--------------------Configuration: Scripter - JDK version 1.6.0_20 <Default> - <Default>--------------------
Exception in thread "AWT-EventQueue-0" java.lang.StringIndexOutOfBoundsException: String index out of range: -1
    at java.lang.String.substring(String.java:1931)
    at ScriptFrame.getBetween(Scripter.java:135)
    at ScriptFrame.runScript(Scripter.java:66)
    at ScriptFrame.actionPerformed(Scripter.java:115)
    at javax.swing.AbstractButton.fireActionPerformed(AbstractButton.java:1995)
    at javax.swing.AbstractButton$Handler.actionPerformed(AbstractButton.java:2318)
    at javax.swing.DefaultButtonModel.fireActionPerformed(DefaultButtonModel.java:387)
    at javax.swing.DefaultButtonModel.setPressed(DefaultButtonModel.java:242)
    at javax.swing.plaf.basic.BasicButtonListener.mouseReleased(BasicButtonListener.java:236)
    at java.awt.Component.processMouseEvent(Component.java:6263)
    at javax.swing.JComponent.processMouseEvent(JComponent.java:3267)
    at java.awt.Component.processEvent(Component.java:6028)
    at java.awt.Container.processEvent(Container.java:2041)
    at java.awt.Component.dispatchEventImpl(Component.java:4630)
    at java.awt.Container.dispatchEventImpl(Container.java:2099)
    at java.awt.Component.dispatchEvent(Component.java:4460)
    at java.awt.LightweightDispatcher.retargetMouseEvent(Container.java:4574)
    at java.awt.LightweightDispatcher.processMouseEvent(Container.java:4238)
    at java.awt.LightweightDispatcher.dispatchEvent(Container.java:4168)
    at java.awt.Container.dispatchEventImpl(Container.java:2085)
    at java.awt.Window.dispatchEventImpl(Window.java:2478)
    at java.awt.Component.dispatchEvent(Component.java:4460)
    at java.awt.EventQueue.dispatchEvent(EventQueue.java:599)
    at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpOneEventForFilters(EventDispatchThread.java:269)
    at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForFilter(EventDispatchThread.java:184)
    at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForHierarchy(EventDispatchThread.java:174)
    at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(EventDispatchThread.java:169)
    at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(EventDispatchThread.java:161)
    at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.run(EventDispatchThread.java:122)

Process completed.

EDIT: I think you're right, so how would I go about looking for the start string in the search string?

[Norm]

at ScriptFrame.getBetween(Scripter.java:135)

What code is at line 135 in your program?

How does the index get to be -1 there?

[iluxa]

	public static String getBetween(String search, String start, String stop) {
		int index = search.indexOf(start);
		return search.substring(index, search.indexOf(stop, index));
	}

what happens if "search" doesn't have the "start" string? "index" will become -1, and when you try to sub-string off that index, you get the exception.

[AwesomeStorm]

But how is there no start string, I'm using the same code for the messageBox as I am the file.Delete and that works fine :S

[iluxa]

you're messing up on this line:

String strTitle = getBetween(arrCommands[i], "', '", "')");

start = ', '
command=file.Delete('C:\text.txt');

command doesn't contain start.

[AwesomeStorm]

you're messing up on this line:

String strTitle = getBetween(arrCommands[i], "', '", "')");

start = ', '
command=file.Delete('C:\text.txt');

command doesn't contain start.

Aw :(

So how do I fix it lol

[iluxa]

you should apply Feynman Problem Solving Algorithm:

1. Write down the problem.
2. Think real hard.
3. Write down the answer.