Question about regular expression

[Sasha McGrath]

How would I make a regular expression that would represent the following date: 2008-09-17 ?

[Shashank Agarwal]

Originally posted by Sasha McGrath:
How would I make a regular expression that would represent the following date: 2008-09-17 ?

Pattern datePattern = Pattern.compile("\\d{4,4}-\\d{1,2}-\\d{1,2}");

Note that 1, 2 allows matching dates like 2008-10-3. If it's definitely going to be 2 digit, then use {2, 2}.

[Sasha McGrath]

Thank you for answering my question.

Suppose I had the following code:

String input = new String("2008-09-17T00:00:00-04:00");
Pattern datePattern = Pattern.compile("\\d{4,4}-\\d{1,2}-\\d{1,2}");
Matcher myMatch = datePattern.matcher(input);

How would I find the string that matches the pattern and store it in a variable?

[ October 02, 2008: Message edited by: Sasha McGrath ]
[ October 02, 2008: Message edited by: Sasha McGrath ]

[Jesper de Jong]

Have a look at the API documentation of the method find() in class Matcher. It explains how you can find a substring in a string that matches the specified pattern.

[Rob Spoor]

Originally posted by Shashank Agarwal:
Note that 1, 2 allows matching dates like 2008-10-3. If it's definitely going to be 2 digit, then use {2, 2}.

Or even easier, just {2}. Just like {4,4} is equal to {4}.

[Campbell Ritchie]

Originally posted by Shashank Agarwal:
If it's definitely going to be 2 digit, then use {2, 2}.

There is a subtle pitfall there; you need to write {2,2} not {2, 2} (although Rob has provided a better method!). I used to have no end of trouble before I realised the whitespace in the {} causes errors.
[ October 03, 2008: Message edited by: Campbell Ritchie ]

[Shashank Agarwal]

Originally posted by Campbell Ritchie:


There is a subtle pitfall there; you need to write {2,2} not {2, 2} (although Rob has provided a better method!). I used to have no end of trouble before I realised the whitespace in the {} causes errors.

[ October 03, 2008: Message edited by: Campbell Ritchie ]

Did not know that. You probably saved me hours.