(If I'm taking the complete wrong direction let me know if there is a better way I should be approaching this)
I have a Java program that will have multiple patterns that I want to compare against an input. If one of the patterns matches then I want to save that value in a String. I can get it to work with a single pattern but I'd like to be able to check against many.
Right now I have this to check if an input matches one pattern:
Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile("TST\\w{1,}");
Matcher match = pattern.matcher(input);
String ID = match.find()?match.group():null;
So, if the input was TST1234 or abcTST1234 then ID = "TST1234"
I want to have multiple patterns like:
Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile("TST\\w{1,}");
Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile("TWT\\w{1,}");
...
and then to a collection and then check each one against the input:
List<Pattern> rxs = new ArrayList<Pattern>();
rxs.add(pattern);
rxs.add(pattern2);
String ID = null;
for (Pattern rx : rxs) {
if (rx.matcher(requestEnt).matches()){
ID = //???
}
}
I'm not sure how to set ID to what I want. I've tried
ID = rx.matcher(requestEnt).group();
and
ID = rx.matcher(requestEnt).find()?rx.matcher(requestEnt).group():null;
Not really sure how to make this work or where to go from here though. Any help or suggestions are appreciated. Thanks.
EDIT: Yes the patterns will change over time. So The patten list will grow.
I just need to get the string of the match...ie if the input is abcTWT123 it will first check against "TST\w{1,}", then move on to "TWT\w{1,}" and since that matches the ID String will be set to "TWT123".
To collect the matched string in the result you may need to create a group in your regexp if you are matching less than the entire string:
List<Pattern> patterns = new ArrayList<>();
patterns.add(Pattern.compile("(TST\\w+)");
...
Optional<String> result = Optional.empty();
for (Pattern pattern: patterns) {
Matcher matcher = pattern.match();
if (matcher.matches()) {
result = Optional.of(matcher.group(1));
break;
}
}
Or, if you are familiar with streams:
Optional<String> result = patterns.stream()
.map(Pattern::match).filter(Matcher::matches)
.map(m -> m.group(1)).findFirst();
The alternative is to use find (as in #Raffaele's answer) that implicitly creates a group.
Another alternative you may want to consider is to put all your matches into a single pattern.
Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile("(TST\\w+|TWT\\w+|...");
Then you can match and group in a single operation. However this might might it harder to change the matches over time.
Group 1 is the first matched group (i.e. the match inside the first set of parentheses). Group 0 is the entire match. So if you want the entire match (I wasn't sure from your question) then you could perhaps use group 0.
Use an alternation | (a regex OR):
Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile("TST\\w+|TWT\\w+|etc");
Then just check the pattern once.
Note also that {1,} can be replaced with +.
Maybe you just need to end the loop when the first pattern matches:
// TST\\w{1,}
// TWT\\w{1,}
private List<Pattern> patterns;
public String findIdOrNull(String input) {
for (Pattern p : patterns) {
Matcher m = p.matcher(input);
// First match. If the whole string must match use .matches()
if (m.find()) {
return m.group(0);
}
}
return null; // Or throw an Exception if this should never happen
}
If your patterns are all going to be simple prefixes like your examples TST and TWT you can define all of those at once, and user regex alternation | so you won't need to loop over the patterns.
An example:
String prefixes = "TWT|TST|WHW";
String regex = "(" + prefixes + ")\\w+";
Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile(regex);
String input = "abcTST123";
Matcher match = pattern.matcher(input);
String ID = match.find() ? match.group() : null;
// given this, ID will come out as "TST123"
Now prefixes could be read in from a java .properties file, or a simple text file; or passed as a parameter to the method that does this.
You could also define the prefixes as a comma-separated list or one-per-line in a file then process that to turn them into one|two|three|etc before passing it on.
You may be looping over several inputs, and then you would want to create the regex and pattern variables only once, creating only the Matcher for each separate input.
Related
I have a List of String and I want to filter out the String that doesn't match a regex pattern
Input List = Orthopedic,Orthopedic/Ortho,Length(in.)
My code
for(String s : keyList){
Pattern p = Pattern.compile("[a-zA-Z0-9-_]");
Matcher m = p.matcher(s);
if (!m.find()){
System.out.println(s);
}
}
I expect the 2nd and 3rd string to be printed as they do not match the regex. But it is not printing anything
Explanation
You are not matching the entire input. Instead, you are trying to find the next matching part in the input. From Matcher#finds documentation:
Attempts to find the next subsequence of the input sequence that matches the pattern.
So your code will match an input if at least one character is one of a-zA-Z0-9-_.
Solution
If you want to match the whole region you should use Matcher#matches (documentation):
Attempts to match the entire region against the pattern.
And you probably want to adjust your pattern to allow multiple characters, for example by a pattern like
[a-zA-Z0-9-_]+
The + allows 1 to infinite many repetitions of the pattern (? is 0 to 1 and * is 0 to infinite).
Notes
You have an extra - at the end of your pattern. You probably want to remove that. Or, if you intended to match the character litteraly, you need to escape it:
[a-zA-Z0-9\\-_]+
You can test your regex on sites like regex101.com, here's your pattern: regex101.com/r/xvT8V0/1.
Note that there is also String#matches (documentation). So you could write more compact code by just using s.matches("[a-zA-Z0-9_]+").
Also note that you can shortcut character sets like [a-zA-Z0-9_] by using predefined sets. The set \w (word character) matches exactly your desired pattern.
Since the pattern and also the matcher don't change, you might want to move them outside of the loop to slightly increase performance.
Code
All in all your code might then look like:
Pattern p = Pattern.compile("[a-zA-Z0-9_]+");
Matcher m = p.matcher(s);
for (String s : keyList) {
if (!m.matches()) {
System.out.println(s);
}
}
Or compact:
for (String s : keyList) {
if (!s.matches("\\w")) {
System.out.println(s);
}
}
Using streams:
keyList.stream()
.filter(s -> !s.matches("\\w"))
.forEach(System.out::println);
You shouldn't construct a Pattern in a loop, you currently only match a single character, and you can use !String.matches(String) and a filter() operation. Like,
List<String> keyList = Arrays.asList("Orthopedic", "Orthopedic/Ortho", "Length(in.)");
keyList.stream().filter(x -> !x.matches("[a-zA-Z0-9-_]+"))
.forEachOrdered(System.out::println);
Outputs (as requested)
Orthopedic/Ortho
Length(in.)
Or, using the Pattern, like
List<String> keyList = Arrays.asList("Orthopedic", "Orthopedic/Ortho", "Length(in.)");
Pattern p = Pattern.compile("[a-zA-Z0-9-_]+");
keyList.stream().filter(x -> !p.matcher(x).matches()).forEachOrdered(System.out::println);
There are two problems:
1) the regular expression is wrong, it matches just one character.
2) you need to use m.matches() instead of m.find().
You can use matches instead of find:
//Added the + at the end and removed the extra -
Pattern p = Pattern.compile("[a-zA-Z0-9_]+");
for(String s : keyList){
Matcher m = p.matcher(s);
if (!m.matches()){
System.out.println(s);
}
}
Also note that the point of compiling a pattern is to reuse it, so put it outside the loop. Otherwise you may as well use:
for(String s : keyList){
if (!s.matches("[a-zA-Z0-9_]+")){
System.out.println(s);
}
}
I have a string containing a number. Something like "Incident #492 - The Title Description".
I need to extract the number from this string.
Tried
Pattern p = Pattern.compile("\\d+");
Matcher m = p.matcher(theString);
String substring =m.group();
By getting an error
java.lang.IllegalStateException: No match found
What am I doing wrong?
What is the correct expression?
I'm sorry for such a simple question, but I searched a lot and still not found how to do this (maybe because it's too late here...)
You are getting this exception because you need to call find() on the matcher before accessing groups:
Matcher m = p.matcher(theString);
while (m.find()) {
String substring =m.group();
System.out.println(substring);
}
Demo.
There are two things wrong here:
The pattern you're using is not the most ideal for your scenario, it's only checking if a string only contains numbers. Also, since it doesn't contain a group expression, a call to group() is equivalent to calling group(0), which returns the entire string.
You need to be certain that the matcher has a match before you go calling a group.
Let's start with the regex. Here's what it looks like now.
Debuggex Demo
That will only ever match a string that contains all numbers in it. What you care about is specifically the number in that string, so you want an expression that:
Doesn't care about what's in front of it
Doesn't care about what's after it
Only matches on one occurrence of numbers, and captures it in a group
To that, you'd use this expression:
.*?(\\d+).*
Debuggex Demo
The last part is to ensure that the matcher can find a match, and that it gets the correct group. That's accomplished by this:
if (m.matches()) {
String substring = m.group(1);
System.out.println(substring);
}
All together now:
Pattern p = Pattern.compile(".*?(\\d+).*");
final String theString = "Incident #492 - The Title Description";
Matcher m = p.matcher(theString);
if (m.matches()) {
String substring = m.group(1);
System.out.println(substring);
}
You need to invoke one of the Matcher methods, like find, matches or lookingAt to actually run the match.
I have query about java regular expressions. Actually, I am new to regular expressions.
So I need help to form a regex for the statement below:
Statement: a-alphanumeric&b-digits&c-digits
Possible matching Examples: 1) a-90485jlkerj&b-34534534&c-643546
2) A-RT7456ffgt&B-86763454&C-684241
Use case: First of all I have to validate input string against the regular expression. If the input string matches then I have to extract a value, b value and c value like
90485jlkerj, 34534534 and 643546 respectively.
Could someone please share how I can achieve this in the best possible way?
I really appreciate your help on this.
you can use this pattern :
^(?i)a-([0-9a-z]++)&b-([0-9]++)&c-([0-9]++)$
In the case what you try to match is not the whole string, just remove the anchors:
(?i)a-([0-9a-z]++)&b-([0-9]++)&c-([0-9]++)
explanations:
(?i) make the pattern case-insensitive
[0-9]++ digit one or more times (possessive)
[0-9a-z]++ the same with letters
^ anchor for the string start
$ anchor for the string end
Parenthesis in the two patterns are capture groups (to catch what you want)
Given a string with the format a-XXX&b-XXX&c-XXX, you can extract all XXX parts in one simple line:
String[] parts = str.replaceAll("[abc]-", "").split("&");
parts will be an array with 3 elements, being the target strings you want.
The simplest regex that matches your string is:
^(?i)a-([\\da-z]+)&b-(\\d+)&c-(\\d+)
With your target strings in groups 1, 2 and 3, but you need lot of code around that to get you the strings, which as shown above is not necessary.
Following code will help you:
String[] texts = new String[]{"a-90485jlkerj&b-34534534&c-643546", "A-RT7456ffgt&B-86763454&C-684241"};
Pattern full = Pattern.compile("^(?i)a-([\\da-z]+)&b-(\\d+)&c-(\\d+)");
Pattern patternA = Pattern.compile("(?i)([\\da-z]+)&[bc]");
Pattern patternB = Pattern.compile("(\\d+)");
for (String text : texts) {
if (full.matcher(text).matches()) {
for (String part : text.split("-")) {
Matcher m = patternA.matcher(part);
if (m.matches()) {
System.out.println(part.substring(m.start(), m.end()).split("&")[0]);
}
m = patternB.matcher(part);
if (m.matches()) {
System.out.println(part.substring(m.start(), m.end()));
}
}
}
}
i would like to parse a string and get the "stringIAmLookingFor"-part of it, which is surrounded by "\_" at the end and the beginning. I'm using a regex to match that and then remove the "\_" in the found string. This is working, but I'm wondering if there is a more elegant approach to this problem?
String test = "xyz_stringIAmLookingFor_zxy";
Pattern p = Pattern.compile("_(\\w)*_");
Matcher m = p.matcher(test);
while (m.find()) { // find next match
String match = m.group();
match = match.replaceAll("_", "");
System.out.println(match);
}
Solution (partial)
Please also check the next section. Don't just read the solution here.
Just modify your code a bit:
String test = "xyz_stringIAmLookingFor_zxy";
// Make the capturing group capture the text in between (\w*)
// A capturing group is enclosed in (pattern), denoting the part of the
// pattern whose text you want to get separately from the main match.
// Note that there is also non-capturing group (?:pattern), whose text
// you don't need to capture.
Pattern p = Pattern.compile("_(\\w*)_");
Matcher m = p.matcher(test);
while (m.find()) { // find next match
// The text is in the capturing group numbered 1
// The numbering is by counting the number of opening
// parentheses that makes up a capturing group, until
// the group that you are interested in.
String match = m.group(1);
System.out.println(match);
}
Matcher.group(), without any argument will return the text matched by the whole regex pattern. Matcher.group(int group) will return the text matched by capturing group with the specified group number.
If you are using Java 7, you can make use of named capturing group, which makes the code slightly more readable. The string matched by the capturing group can be accessed with Matcher.group(String name).
String test = "xyz_stringIAmLookingFor_zxy";
// (?<name>pattern) is similar to (pattern), just that you attach
// a name to it
// specialText is not a really good name, please use a more meaningful
// name in your actual code
Pattern p = Pattern.compile("_(?<specialText>\\w*)_");
Matcher m = p.matcher(test);
while (m.find()) { // find next match
// Access the text captured by the named capturing group
// using Matcher.group(String name)
String match = m.group("specialText");
System.out.println(match);
}
Problem in pattern
Note that \w also matches _. The pattern you have is ambiguous, and I don't know what your expected output is for the cases where there are more than 2 _ in the string. And do you want to allow underscore _ to be part of the output?
You can define the group you actually want, since you're already using parentheses. You just need to tweak your pattern a bit.
String test = "xyz_stringIAmLookingFor_zxy";
Pattern p = Pattern.compile("_(\\w*)_");
Matcher m = p.matcher(test);
while (m.find()) { // find next match
System.out.println(m.group(1));
}
Use group(1) instead of group() because group() will get you the entire pattern and not the matching group.
Reference : http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/util/regex/Matcher.html#group(int)
"xyz_stringIAmLookingFor_zxy".replaceAll("_(\\w)*_", "$1");
will replace everything by this group in parenthesis
a simpler regex, no group needed:
"(?<=_)[^_]*"
if you want it more strict:
"(?<=_)[^_]+(?=_)"
try
String s = "xyz_stringIAmLookingFor_zxy".replaceAll(".*_(\\w*)_.*", "$1");
System.out.println(s);
output
stringIAmLookingFor
I want to search for a given string pattern in an input sting.
For Eg.
String URL = "https://localhost:8080/sbs/01.00/sip/dreamworks/v/01.00/cui/print/$fwVer/{$fwVer}/$lang/en/$model/{$model}/$region/us/$imageBg/{$imageBg}/$imageH/{$imageH}/$imageSz/{$imageSz}/$imageW/{$imageW}/movie/Kung_Fu_Panda_two/categories/3D_Pix/item/{item}/_back/2?$uniqueID={$uniqueID}"
Now I need to search whether the string URL contains "/{item}/". Please help me.
This is an example. Actually I need is check whether the URL contains a string matching "/{a-zA-Z0-9}/"
You can use the Pattern class for this. If you want to match only word characters inside the {} then you can use the following regex. \w is a shorthand for [a-zA-Z0-9_]. If you are ok with _ then use \w or else use [a-zA-Z0-9].
String URL = "https://localhost:8080/sbs/01.00/sip/dreamworks/v/01.00/cui/print/$fwVer/{$fwVer}/$lang/en/$model/{$model}/$region/us/$imageBg/{$imageBg}/$imageH/{$imageH}/$imageSz/{$imageSz}/$imageW/{$imageW}/movie/Kung_Fu_Panda_two/categories/3D_Pix/item/{item}/_back/2?$uniqueID={$uniqueID}";
Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile("/\\{\\w+\\}/");
Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(URL);
if (matcher.find()) {
System.out.println(matcher.group(0)); //prints /{item}/
} else {
System.out.println("Match not found");
}
That's just a matter of String.contains:
if (input.contains("{item}"))
If you need to know where it occurs, you can use indexOf:
int index = input.indexOf("{item}");
if (index != -1) // -1 means "not found"
{
...
}
That's fine for matching exact strings - if you need real patterns (e.g. "three digits followed by at most 2 letters A-C") then you should look into regular expressions.
EDIT: Okay, it sounds like you do want regular expressions. You might want something like this:
private static final Pattern URL_PATTERN =
Pattern.compile("/\\{[a-zA-Z0-9]+\\}/");
...
if (URL_PATTERN.matcher(input).find())
If you want to check if some string is present in another string, use something like String.contains
If you want to check if some pattern is present in a string, append and prepend the pattern with '.*'. The result will accept strings that contain the pattern.
Example: Suppose you have some regex a(b|c) that checks if a string matches ab or ac
.*(a(b|c)).* will check if a string contains a ab or ac.
A disadvantage of this method is that it will not give you the location of the match, you can use java.util.Mather.find() if you need the position of the match.
You can do it using string.indexOf("{item}"). If the result is greater than -1 {item} is in the string