The java.util.regex.MatcheResult interface provides methods to retrieve the results of a match.
You can get an object of this interface using the toMatchResult() method of the Matcher class. This method returns a MatchResult object which represents the match state of the current matcher.
The start() method of this interface returns the beginning index of the current match.
Example
import java.util.Scanner; import java.util.regex.MatchResult; import java.util.regex.Matcher; import java.util.regex.Pattern; public class StartExample { public static void main(String args[]) { //Reading String from user System.out.println("Enter a String"); Scanner sc = new Scanner(System.in); String input = sc.nextLine(); String regex = "\\W"; //Compiling the regular expression Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile(regex); //Retrieving the matcher object Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(input); if(matcher.find()) { System.out.println("Match occurred"); }else { System.out.println("Match not occurred"); } //Retrieving the MatchResult object MatchResult res = matcher.toMatchResult(); int start = res.start(); System.out.println(start); } }
Output
Enter a String This * is # sample % text with & non word characters Match occurred 4