Regular expression help

[Karsten Daemen]

Hi guys,

I need to make a regular that checks if a name starts with a capital and containq only a maximum of 2 ' (accent) and as many white spaces as you wish. i came up with this code:

if(name.matches("[A-Z][a-zA-Z\'{0,2}]*")

I also tried a numerous other possivbilities like

name.matches("[A-Z][a-zA-Z]\'{0,2}")

and a lot of derivatives, has anyone any ideas?

Thanks a lot in advance!

[Rob Spoor]

Starts with a capital: ^[A-Z].
Two quotes: ''
Any whitespace: \\s*

Just add the "any whitespace" in between and this is the regex for exactly two quotes: ^[A-Z]\\s*'\\s*'\\s*$.
Now you want a maximum of two quotes so each quote is optional. That's where ? to the rescue.

[Kenny Kuchera]

hey, thanks for quick reply. i forgot to say though that a-z A-Z is always allowed. now i came up with following code which works perfect for what i need it to do

name.matches("[A-Z][a-zA-Z ]*'?[a-zA-Z ]*'?[a-zA-Z ]*")

the only problem with this is that there is something like \'{0,2} wich would be more efficient cause lets say that I want three ' to be allowed or two @'s then the code would get really long cause i'd always have to add '? or @? so now my question is if there is anyway to make it so i can set the limit to lets say ten ' in the entire string with \'{0,10}? Thanks a lot in advance!

[Henry Wong]

First, please stick with one JR account. Using two accounts is confusing and somewhat schizophrenic.

Kenny Kuchera wrote:
the only problem with this is that there is something like \'{0,2} wich would be more efficient cause lets say that I want three ' to be allowed or two @'s then the code would get really long cause i'd always have to add '? or @? so now my question is if there is anyway to make it so i can set the limit to lets say ten ' in the entire string with \'{0,10}? Thanks a lot in advance!

First, you can attach the letters clause and quote clause together...

name.matches("[A-Z]([a-zA-Z ]*')?([a-zA-Z ]*')?[a-zA-Z ]*");

This will make the final a-z catch the match if the quotes don't exist... which is not relevant. But it will also allow you to do this...

name.matches("[A-Z]([a-zA-Z ]*'){0,2}[a-zA-Z ]*");

as the two "?" matches are now adjacent matches.

Henry

[Karsten Daemen]

We are two seperate persons, we're just working on the same assignment I just introduced him to this splendid forum. Apoligies for the confusion and thank you verry much for your help!

[Kenny Kuchera]

Thanks a lot for the reply! that will make it a lot more efficient! thanks!