Java Regular Expression

Question

I need to define a (Java) regex that will match any string that does NOT contain any of these

• 'foo' or 'foos' as a whole word
• 'bar' or 'bars' as a whole word
• 'baz' or 'bazs' as a whole word

Is it possible to express this as a single regex? I know it would be more readable to use 3 separate regexs, but I'd like to do it in one if possible.

Thanks, Don

Answer 1

Try the following:

final private static Pattern p = Pattern.compile(".*\\b(?:foos?|bars?|bazs?)\\b.*");
public boolean isGoodString(String stringToTest) {
  return !p.matcher(stringToTest).matches();
}

Answer 2

Here you go:

^((?!\bfoos?|bars?|bazs?\b).)*$