CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javaregex
rmp2150
rmp2150

Reputation: 807

Regular Expression "Or" Return one group Java

How do you return only a group that was found to match?

I have this regex:

".*>(\\d+.*)\\s.*\\(.*</|>(\\d+.+)<"

When I run:

   Pattern p = Pattern.compile(regex);
   Matcher m = p.matcher(comparisonString);

   if(m.find() == true){
           System.out.println(m.group(1));
   }

Whenever the second part of the expression is matched (the expression after the 'OR' operator), null is returned. How do I return the matching group whenever the secondary expression (the expression after 'OR') is matched?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 497

Answers (1)

Charles
Charles

Reputation: 245

You need to use capturing groups:

Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile("(regexToMatch1)|(regexToMatch2)");
...
read in stuff here
...
Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(yourString);
if (matcher.matches()) {
    String firstString  = matcher.group(1);
    String secondString = matcher.group(2);
}

Then just throw away whatever groups you don't want.

good examples here: http://javamex.com/tutorials/regular_expressions/capturing_groups.shtml

Edit: Wait, I don't think I understand what you're asking. Your groups match, but the groups are null? You just need to reference the second group in your matcher.group(#); call.

Upvotes: 2

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