CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javaregex
amphibient
amphibient

Reputation: 31248

Word boundry \b in Java RegEx

I am having difficulty with using \b as a word delimiter in Java Regex.

For 

text = "/* sql statement */ INSERT INTO someTable";

Pattern.compile("(?i)\binsert\b"); no match found

Pattern insPtrn = Pattern.compile("\bINSERT\b"); no match found

but

Pattern insPtrn = Pattern.compile("INSERT"); finds a match

Any idea what I am doing wrong?

Upvotes: 2

Views: 259

Answers (2)

Rohit Jain
Rohit Jain

Reputation: 213261

Use this instead: -

Pattern insPtrn = Pattern.compile("\\bINSERT\\b")

You need to escape \b with an extra backslash..

Upvotes: 2

Andrew Clark
Andrew Clark

Reputation: 208485

When writing regular expressions in Java, you need to be sure to escape all of the backslashes, so the regex \bINSERT\b becomes "\\bINSERT\\b" as a Java string.

If you do not escape the backslash, then the \b in the string literal is interpreted as a backspace character.

Upvotes: 5

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