CORE JAVA

MANUAL V8.3

MODULE CODE:
DL.A.01.01

ANUDIP FOUNDATION
Trainer
Manual Core Java

1
Trainer
Manual Core Java

Module 3: String Handling, Regular Expression and Wrapper class

Chapter 3

Objective: After completing this lesson you will be Materials Required:

able to :
* * Gain an understanding of Java regular expressions, 1. Computer
regex class, matcher class and pattern class 2. Internet access
*
*

Theory Duration: 120 minutes Practical Duration: 0 minute

Total Duration: 120 minutes

2
Trainer
Manual Core Java

Chapter 3

3.1 Java Regular Expression- Regex Class

What is a Java Regular Expression?

Regular Expressions or Regex is the API used for defining String patterns to be used for locating, editing and a text.

These expressions are used for defining string constraints. Regular Expressions are available within the java.util.regex

package.

Example of the three methods for writing regular expressions in Java -

import java.util.regex.*;

public class RegexExample1{

public static void main(String args[]){

1st method

Pattern p = Pattern.compile(".s");//. represents single character

Matcher m = p.matcher("as");

boolean b = m.matches();

2nd method

boolean b2=Pattern.compile(".s").matcher("as").matches();

3rd method

boolean b3 = Pattern.matches(".s", "as");

System.out.println(b+" "+b2+" "+b3);

}}

Output: true true true

Character classes of Regex

3
Trainer
Manual Core Java

[abc] - a, b, c

[^abc] - Any character other than a, b, or c

[a-zA-Z] - a to z, or A to Z, inclusive

[a-d[m-p]] - a to d, or m to p: [a-dm-p]

[a-z&&[def]] - d, e, f

[a-z&&[^bc]] - a to z, but not b and c: [ad-z]

[a-z&&[^m-p]] - a to z, but not m to p: [a-lq-z]

Regex Quantifiers

Regex quantifiers point to the number of character occurrences -

X? - X occurs once or not at all

X+ - X occurs once or more times

X* - X occurs zero or more times

X{n} - X occurs n times only

X{n,} - X occurs n or more times

X{y,z} - X occurs at least y times but less than z times

4
Trainer
Manual Core Java

Regex Metacharacters

These function as short regex codes

. - Any character

\d - Any digits (0-9)

\D - Any non-digit (^0-9)

\s - Any whitespace character (\t\n\x0B\f\r)

\S - Any non-whitespace character (^\s)

\w - Any word character (a-zA-Z_0-9)

\W - Any non-word character (^\w)

\b - A word boundary

\B - A non-word boundary

Example of regular expression -

import java.util.regex.*;
class RegexExample1{

public static void main(String args[]){

System.out.println(Pattern.matches(".t", "bt"));//true (2nd char is t) System.out.println(Pattern.matches(".t",
"pk"));//false (2nd char is not t) System.out.println(Pattern.matches(".t", "lot"));//false (has upwards of 2 char)

5
Trainer
Manual Core Java

System.out.println(Pattern.matches(".t", "boat"));//false (has upwards of 2 char)

System.out.println(Pattern.matches("..t", "rat"));//true (3rd char is t)
}}

2nd Example of regular expression -

Regex : ^(.+)@(.+)$

List emails = new ArrayList();

emails.add("[email protected]");
emails.add("[email protected]");
emails.add("[email protected]");
emails.add("[email protected]");
emails.add("user#@domain.co.in");
emails.add("user@domaincom");
emails.add("user#domain.com");
emails.add("@gmail.com");

String regex = "^(.+)@(.+)$ ";

Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile(regex);

for(String email : emails){

Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(email);
System.out.println(email +" : "+ matcher.matches());
}

Output:
[email protected] : true
[email protected] : true
[email protected] : true
[email protected] : true
user#@domain.co.in : true
user@domaincom : true

6
Trainer
Manual Core Java

user#domain.com : false
@gmail.com : false

Matcher class

Matcher class is an expression used to implement the MatchResult interface. The regex engine of Java performs the

necessary actions to match character chain operations.

Matcher class methods

boolean matches() - tests to check if a regular expression matches a pattern

boolean find() - locates the next expression matching a pattern

boolean find(int start) - searches the next expression matching the pattern, starting from a specified number

String group() - returns matching sub-sequence

int start() - returns starting index of a matching sub-sequence

int end() - returns ending index of a matching sub-sequence

int groupCount() - returns the count of total matching sub-sequences

Pattern class

The pattern class refers to the compiled variant of a regular expression. This form of expressions is used for defining

a regex engine pattern.

Pattern class methods

static Pattern compile(String regex) - performs specific regex compilations and returns the Pattern instance.

Matcher matcher(CharSequence input) - creates a matcher matching the input with a pattern

static boolean matches(String regex, CharSequence input) - operates as a combination of matcher and compile

methods. It performs regular expression compilation and matching of provided input with the pattern.

String[] split(CharSequence input) - splits input string based on designated pattern matches

7
Trainer
Manual Core Java

String pattern() - returns the regex pattern

8
Trainer
Manual Core Java

Instructions: The progress of students will be assessed with the exercises mentioned below.

MCQ

1. Regular expressions in Java are also known as ________.

a) reg exp

b) regex

c) regexp

d) None of the mentioned

2. What are used for defining string constraints?

a) irregular expressions

b) core expressions

c) regular expressions

d) None of the mentioned

3. Which Java package includes regular expressions?

a) java.util.exp

b) java.util.regex

c) java.util.structure

d) None of the mentioned

9
Trainer
Manual Core Java

4. What does the [^abc] class entail?

a) a and b, or c

b) a or b or c

c) a+b+c

d) characters other than a,b,c

5. What does the [a-zA-Z] class entail?

a) a to z, or A to Z

b) a and z, or A and Z,

c) a with z, or A with Z,

d) None of the mentioned

6. What does the X? quantifier signify?

a) X occurs once or not at all

b) X occurs once or twice

c) X occurs once then multiple times

d) None of the mentioned

7. What does the X{n,} quantifier signify?

a) X occurs n times only

b) X occurs n or more times

c) X occurs n+1 times

10
Trainer
Manual Core Java

d) None of the mentioned

8. Which interface does the Matcher class implement?

a) MatchStrings

b) MatchResult

c) MatchClass

d) None of the mentioned

9. int start() returns the starting index of a matching _____________

a) sequence

b) sub-sequence

c) wrapper

d) None of the mentioned

10. Pattern class refers to ___________ regular expression variants.

a) compiled

b) combined

c) constricted

d) None of the mentioned

11