CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javaregexletters-and-numbers
MadeleineG
MadeleineG

Reputation: 31

Regex Java "test 123" needs to fail

So I created a program that would bring go through an input file and only pull the lines with 2 words in them. I then am trying to pull only the lines with ONLY letters. If there is any number I need it to fail. So far after researching I have come up with the code below and am just stuck on how else to get "test 123" to fail. It keeps passing.`Below is the call for my match function and the function itself. * *

else if (line.matches("[\\w\\-.]{2,} [\\w\\-.]{2,}"))
        {
            getmatch();
        } 




public static String getMatch() 
    {
        if (line.matches("/[a-zA-Z]+/g") )
        {
            match=line;
        }

        return match;
    }

Upvotes: 0

Views: 124

Answers (1)

Tim Biegeleisen
Tim Biegeleisen

Reputation: 521053

I would use the following general pattern to match lines with two letter-only words:

\s*[A-Za-z]+\s+[A-Za-z]+\s*

This pattern will also take into account any amount of whitespace on either side of the two words, or in between them. Note that String#matches by default includes starting and ending anchors around the input regex pattern, so we don't need to explicitly include them, though I did include them in the demo below.

You would use this pattern as:

String input = " Hello World  ";
if (input.matches("\\s*[A-Za-z]+\\s+[A-Za-z]+\\s*")) {
    System.out.println("Found a match!");
}

Demo

Upvotes: 1

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