Matcher toString() method in Java with Examples

The java.util.regex.Matcher class represents an engine that performs various match operations. There is no constructor for this class, you can create/obtain an object of this class using the matches() method of the class java.util.regex.Pattern.

The toString() method of the Matcher class returns a string value representing the contents of the current matcher object.

Example 1

import java.util.Scanner;
import java.util.regex.Matcher;
import java.util.regex.Pattern;
public class ToStringExample {
   public static void main(String[] args) {
      Scanner sc = new Scanner(System.in);
      System.out.println("Enter input text: ");
      String input = sc.nextLine();
      String regex = "[#%&*]";
      //Creating a pattern object
      Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile(regex);
      //Creating a Matcher object
      Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(input);
      int count =0;
      while(matcher.find()) {
         count++;
      }
      //Retrieving Pattern used
      System.out.println("The are "+count+" special [# % & *] characters in the given text");
      System.out.println("Following is the string format of the matcher used: \n"+matcher.toString());
   }
}

Output

Enter input text:
Hello# How # are# you *& welcome to T#utorials%point
The are 7 special [# % & *] characters in the given text
Following is the string format of the matcher used:
java.util.regex.Matcher[pattern=[#%&*] region=0,52 lastmatch=]

Example 2

import java.util.Scanner;
import java.util.regex.Matcher;
import java.util.regex.Pattern;
public class ToStringExample {
   public static void main(String[] args) {
      Scanner sc = new Scanner(System.in);
      System.out.println("Enter input text: ");
      String input = sc.nextLine();
      String regex = "[#%&*]";
      //Creating a pattern object
      Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile(regex);
      //Creating a Matcher object
      Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(input);
      int count =0;
      while(matcher.find()) {
         count++;
      }
      //Retrieving Pattern used
      System.out.println("The are "+count+" special [# % & *] characters in the given text");
      System.out.println("Following is the string format of the matcher used: \n"+matcher.toString());
   }
}

Output

Enter input text:
Hello# How # are# you *& welcome to T#utorials%point
The are 7 special [# % & *] characters in the given text
Following is the string format of the matcher used:
java.util.regex.Matcher[pattern=[#%&*] region=0,52 lastmatch=]