CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javaregex
Otis Ottington
Otis Ottington

Reputation: 477

java regex - find all elements

I have the content as a string:

{1:F01[some data there]}{2:I515[some data there]}{4::[multiple data there]}{5:{TNG:}}
{1:F01[some data there]}{2:I515[some data there]}{4::[multiple data there too]}{5:{TNG:}}
{1:F01[some data there]}{2:I515[some data there]}{4::[some data there]}{5:{TNG:}}

I want to find every record. A record starts with {1} and ends with {5}. I already wrote this regex:

(\{1:F01)?.*(\{2:)?.*(\{5:\{TNG:\}\})?

But i always get the whole content containing every record. What to do?

Upvotes: 2

Views: 673

Answers (2)

nu11p01n73R
nu11p01n73R

Reputation: 26677

The regex matches every like because {1 and {5 are made optional with ?, and the .* will try to match everything

You can use a simple regex like,

/^\{1:F01.*5:\{TNG:\}\}$/gm

Regex Demo

Regex Explanation

  • ^ Anchors the regex at the start of the string.

  • {1:F01.* Matches {1:F01 at the start of the string, followed by anything.

  • 5:\{TNG:\}\} Matches at the end of the string.

  • $ Anchors the regex at the end of the string.

Edit

In java, the multiline is added using Pattern.MULTILINE. If your input string is not multiline, you need not add this flag at all.

Also the regex need not be delimited by //.

Example

String s="{1:F01[some data there]}{2:I515[some data there]}{4::[some data there]}{5:{TNG:}}";
Pattern p=Pattern.compile("^\\{1:F01.*5:\\{TNG:\\}\\}$", Pattern.MULTILINE); 
Matcher m=p.matcher(s);
System.out.println(m.matches());
// true

Upvotes: 1

Eric Duminil
Eric Duminil

Reputation: 54303

.* is greedy, it will match as long as possible, and might glob too many records.

.*? will stop as soon as possible.

This should do:

\{1:.*?\{5:\{TNG:\}\}

Upvotes: 1

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