CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javaregex
JBalaguero
JBalaguero

Reputation: 201

Getting more characters inside matcher group than expected

I'm trying to match the following string against the pattern:

String s  = "AAA|VY~1055~ ~~BCN~09/24/2012~";
Matcher m = Pattern.compile("(.*)\\|VY\\~(.*)\\~").matcher(s);

if (m.find()) 
{
  String value = m.group(2);      
  System.out.print("value = " + value);
}

The output is:

value = 1055~ ~~BCN~09/24/2012

But I want this:

value = 1055

Why is it getting all the characters until the end of string?

I've read something about to consume to the end of string, and I've tried:

Matcher m = Pattern.compile("(.*)\\|VY\\~(.*)\\~(.*)").matcher(s);
Matcher m = Pattern.compile("(.*)\\|VY\\~(.*)\\~.*").matcher(s);

But it doesn't work.

Can anybody help me?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 53

Answers (2)

Bananeweizen
Bananeweizen

Reputation: 22070

You want to read about the gready, reluctant and possessive quantifiers (need to scroll down a bit).

Upvotes: 0

Eric
Eric

Reputation: 97571

Use the *? (reluctant) quantifier, which is lazy (stops matching as soon as possible).

Matcher m = Pattern.compile("(.*)\\|VY\\~(.*?)\\~").matcher(s);

Upvotes: 2

Related Questions