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Java Regex: Manish Shrivastava

Regular expressions (RegEx) allow defining patterns to match strings. The java.util.regex package provides classes to work with regular expressions in Java. It contains the Pattern class to compile a regular expression into a pattern object, and the Matcher class which is an engine that performs match operations on input against a pattern. To use this package, import it, compile a regex into a Pattern, create a Matcher from the pattern, and call methods like matches() on the matcher to test if the input matches the pattern. Common methods allow finding, replacing, and splitting strings based on regular expression patterns.

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Sangeetha Bajanthri
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39 views19 pages

Java Regex: Manish Shrivastava

Regular expressions (RegEx) allow defining patterns to match strings. The java.util.regex package provides classes to work with regular expressions in Java. It contains the Pattern class to compile a regular expression into a pattern object, and the Matcher class which is an engine that performs match operations on input against a pattern. To use this package, import it, compile a regex into a Pattern, create a Matcher from the pattern, and call methods like matches() on the matcher to test if the input matches the pattern. Common methods allow finding, replacing, and splitting strings based on regular expression patterns.

Uploaded by

Sangeetha Bajanthri
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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JAVA RegEx

Manish Shrivastava

01/16/16

Recap
A regular expression-- a pattern that
describes or matches a set of strings

E.g. ca[trn]

Matched text chunk of text which


matches the regular expression.

E.g. ca[trn] matches car, can, cat

Recap
Metacharacters -$ ^ . \ [] \( \) + ?
Sets [aeiou] and [bcdfghjklmnpqrstvwxyz]
Negation using (^) e.g. [^ab^8]
Repeated match- using * and +

E.g. a* or [a-z]*

Thank you !

Java and RegEx


Package java.util.regex
Description

Classes for matching character


sequences against patterns specified by
regular expressions.

java.util.regex

java.util.regex.Pattern

java.util.regex.Matcher

import java.util.regex.*
Why this Package?
What it contains?
How to use this Package?
What this Package can do?

Why this Package


Everything in Java should be an
object of some class.
Regular expressions are an
important part of many applications
Note : Regex Package was only introduced

after JDK1.4

Regular expressions (RegEx) tend to


be easier to write than they are to read

What it contains
The Package defines 2 classes

Pattern A regular expression, specified


as a string, must first be compiled into
an instance of this class

Matcher - An engine that performs match


operations on a character sequence by
interpreting a Pattern

How to use java.util.regex


Step 1 : Import
import java.util.regex.*;

Alternatively,
import java.util.regex.Pattern;
import java.util.regex.Matcher;

What can it do

Match Regular
Expressions
(Duh!!!)

But how?
compile regular expression into an instance of
Pattern using Pattern.compile(regex)

Eg. Pattern pat = Pattern.compile([ab]c*d");

Use the resulting pattern to create a Matcher


object using <pattern-name>.matcher(input)

Eg. Matcher matcher = pat.matcher("accccd");

Find if the pattern pat matched

Eg. boolean isMatch = matcher.matches();

All this can also be done by

boolean isMatch = Pattern.matches([ab]c*d",


accccd");

Demo

Deep Waters
Both Pattern and Matcher classes
provide various functions
Most of the common operations
are provided as functions

Pattern Functions
staticPattern compile(Stringregex)
Compiles the given regular
expression into a pattern
Matcher matcher(CharSequence
input)
Creates a matcher that will match
the given input against this pattern.

String pattern()
Returns the regular expression from
which this pattern was compiled.
String[] split(CharSequenceinput)
Splits the given input sequence
around matches of this pattern.

staticboolean matches(String
regex, CharSequenceinput)
Compiles the given regular
expression and attempts to match
the given input against it.

Matcher functions
boolean find()
Attempts to find the next subsequence of the
input sequence that matches the pattern.
boolean lookingAt()
Attempts to match the input sequence,
starting at the beginning, against the
pattern.
boolean matches()
Attempts to match the entire input sequence
against the pattern.

Pattern pattern()
Returns the pattern that is interpreted by
this matcher.
String replaceAll(Stringreplacement)
Replaces every subsequence of the input
that matches the pattern with the given
string.
String replaceFirst(Stringreplacement)
Replaces the first subsequence of the input
that matches the pattern with the given
string.

Int start()
Returns the start index of the
previous match.
int end()
Returns the index of the last
character matched, plus one.

Thank You!

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