new to regex, pattern behavior question

[Julia Reynolds]

How come this regex pattern comparison returns false?

Pattern pt = Pattern.compile("CDE");
System.out.println("Pattern.matches(\"CDE\", \"ABCDEFGH\"):" + pt.matcher("ABCDEFGH").matches() );

I don't understand why I don't get a match on 'CDE'.

Julia

[Peter Chase]

Your regular expression only matches exactly "CDE", not strings containing "CDE". If you want the latter, I think your expression should be ".*CDE.*" . That is, zero or more characters (of any type), followed by "CDE", followed by zero or more characters (of any type).

[Julia Reynolds]

Peter,

Aha! You're right, of course. Thanks!

Julia

[Dirk Schreckmann]

Julia, you might also like to take a look at other methods in the regex API.

Pattern pt = Pattern.compile("CDE");
System.out.println("Pattern.matches(\"CDE\", \"ABCDEFGH\"):" + pt.matcher("ABCDEFGH").find() );

In this case, the result is true.

[Julia Reynolds]

Dirk -

Thanks, good advice.

J