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Java: Need to extract a number from a string

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.

Regex to replace a repeating string pattern

I need to replace a repeated pattern within a word with each basic construct unit. For example
I have the string "TATATATA" and I want to replace it with "TA". Also I would probably replace more than 2 repetitions to avoid replacing normal words.
I am trying to do it in Java with replaceAll method.

I think you want this (works for any length of the repeated string):
String result = source.replaceAll("(.+)\\1+", "$1")
Or alternatively, to prioritize shorter matches:
String result = source.replaceAll("(.+?)\\1+", "$1")
It matches first a group of letters, and then it again (using back-reference within the match pattern itself). I tried it and it seems to do the trick.
Example
String source = "HEY HEY duuuuuuude what'''s up? Trololololo yeye .0.0.0";
System.out.println(source.replaceAll("(.+?)\\1+", "$1"));
// HEY dude what's up? Trolo ye .0

You had better use a Pattern here than .replaceAll(). For instance:
private static final Pattern PATTERN
= Pattern.compile("\\b([A-Z]{2,}?)\\1+\\b");
//...
final Matcher m = PATTERN.matcher(input);
ret = m.replaceAll("$1");
edit: example:
public static void main(final String... args)
{
System.out.println("TATATA GHRGHRGHRGHR"
.replaceAll("\\b([A-Za-z]{2,}?)\\1+\\b", "$1"));
}
This prints:
TA GHR

Since you asked for a regex solution:
(\\w)(\\w)(\\1\\2){2,};
(\w)(\w): matches every pair of consecutive word characters ((.)(.) will catch every consecutive pair of characters of any type), storing them in capturing groups 1 and 2. (\\1\\2) matches anytime the characters in those groups are repeated again immediately afterward, and {2,} matches when it repeats two or more times ({2,10} would match when it repeats more than one but less than ten times).
String s = "hello TATATATA world";
Pattern p = Pattern.compile("(\\w)(\\w)(\\1\\2){2,}");
Matcher m = p.matcher(s);
while (m.find()) System.out.println(m.group());
//prints "TATATATA"

I am trying to extract text using regex but it is not working

I am trying to extract text using regex but it is not working. Although my regex work fine on regex validators.
public class HelloWorld {
public static void main(String []args){
String PATTERN1 = "F\\{([\\w\\s&]*)\\}";
String PATTERN2 = "{([\\w\\s&]*)\\}";
String src = "F{403}#{Title1}";
List<String> fvalues = Arrays.asList(src.split("#"));
System.out.println(fieldExtract(fvalues.get(0), PATTERN1));
System.out.println(fieldExtract(fvalues.get(1), PATTERN2));
}
private static String fieldExtract(String src, String ptrn) {
System.out.println(src);
System.out.println(ptrn);
Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile(ptrn);
Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(src);
return matcher.group(1);
}
}

Why not use:
Pattern regex = Pattern.compile("F\\{([\\d\\s&]*)\\}#\\{([\\s\\w&]*)\\}");
To get both ?
This way the number will be in group 1 and the title in group 2.
Another thing if you're going to compile the regex (which can be helpful to performance) at least make the regex object static so that it doesn't get compiled each time you call the function (which kind of misses the whole pre-compilation point :) )
Basic demo here.

First problem:
String PATTERN2 = "\\{([\\w\\s&]*)\\}"; // quote '{'
Second problem:
Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(src);
if( matcher.matches() ){
return matcher.group(1);
} else ...
The Matcher must be asked to plough the field, otherwise you can't harvest the results.

Pattern matching with string containing dots

Pattern is:
private static Pattern r = Pattern.compile("(.*\\..*\\..*)\\..*");
String is:
sentVersion = "1.1.38.24.7";
I do:
Matcher m = r.matcher(sentVersion);
if (m.find()) {
guessedClientVersion = m.group(1);
}
I expect 1.1.38 but the pattern match fails. If I change to Pattern.compile("(.*\\..*\\..*)\\.*");
// notice I remove the "." before the last *
then 1.1.38.XXX fails
My goal is to find (x.x.x) in any incoming string.
Where am I wrong?

Problem is probably due to greedy-ness of your regex. Try this negation based regex pattern:
private static Pattern r = Pattern.compile("([^.]*\\.[^.]*\\.[^.]*)\\..*");
Online Demo: http://regex101.com/r/sJ5rD4

Make your .* matches reluctant with ?
Pattern r = Pattern.compile("(.*?\\..*?\\..*?)\\..*");
otherwise .* matches the whole String value.
See here: http://regex101.com/r/lM2lD5

Java Regexp capturing group includes space, why?

I am trying to parse this string,
"斬釘截鐵 斩钉截铁 [zhan3 ding1 jie2 tie3] /to chop the nail and slice the iron (idiom)/resolute and decisive/unhesitating/definitely/without any doubt/";
With this code
private static final Pattern TRADITIONAL = Pattern.compile("(.*?) ");
private String extractSinglePattern(String row, Pattern pattern) {
Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(row);
if (matcher.find()) {
return matcher.group();
}
return null;
}
However, for some reason the string returned contains a space at the end
org.junit.ComparisonFailure: expected:<斬釘截鐵[]> but was:<斬釘截鐵[ ]>
Is there something wrong with my pattern?
I have also tried
private static final Pattern TRADITIONAL = Pattern.compile("(.*?)\\s");
but to no avail
I have also tried matching with two spaces at the end of the pattern, but it doesn't match (there is only one space).

You're using Matcher.group() which is documented as:
Returns the input subsequence matched by the previous match.
The match includes the space. The capturing group within the match doesn't, but you haven't asked for that.
If you change your return statement to:
return matcher.group(1);
then I believe it'll do what you want.

use this regular expression (.+?)(?=\s+)