CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javaregex
Anand B
Anand B

Reputation: 3085

regex pattern fails for length of intermediate string

I need to check if the string provided by the user starts with abc and ends with de with 4 characters in between like

"abc<4 characters>de".

I tried using pattern ("^abc.*(4)de$")

But it fails for the 4 characters in middle. Is there any problem with pattern.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 101

Answers (4)

Konstantin Yovkov
Konstantin Yovkov

Reputation: 62874

Change the () brackets with {}

^abc.{4}de$

which means that the matching word should start with abc and end with de and in between there should be excactly 4 characters.

A simpler solution is just to place a . between the start and the end pattern to describe that there should be exactly four characters:

^abc....de$

Upvotes: 2

Karthik Prasad
Karthik Prasad

Reputation: 10034

Modify RegEx to following

Pattern p = Pattern.compile("^abc.{4}de$");
         Matcher m = p.matcher("abc11111de");
         boolean b = m.matches();
         System.out.println(b);

Upvotes: 1

assylias
assylias

Reputation: 328785

To say you need exactly four characters, you can use one of those:

"^abc.{4}de$"
"^abc....de$"

Upvotes: 3

Denys S&#233;guret
Denys S&#233;guret

Reputation: 382404

Use this regular expression :

^abc.{4}de$

.{4} is exactly what it seems : any character (.) exactly 4 times.

Upvotes: 1

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