metacharacter- regex

[joshua antony]

String  x    = "[a][b][.]";
Pattern p    = Pattern.compile( x );
Matcher matcher = p.matcher( "aaaabcdefabdbbab.ab1" );
 
while( matcher.find())
{
System.out.println( " start: " + matcher.start()
                                  + "   group:  " + matcher.group() + "\n" );
}

The output is :
start: 14 group: ab.

Why does . not behave as a metacharacter.

If

String  x    = "[a][b].";

then it behaves like metacharacter giving the output:
start: 3 group: abc

start: 9 group: abd

start: 14 group: ab.

start: 17 group: ab1
which I expected from previous pattern as well.

In a similar way I tried

String  x    = "[a][b][\\d]";

and

String  x    = "[a][b]\\d";

both of which result in same output i.e :
start: 17 group: ab1 giving indication that \d behaves correctly as metacharacter.
So why not dot(.) ?

(I think I have fixed problem with formatting (see next post))
[ September 23, 2006: Message edited by: Barry Gaunt ]

[joshua antony]

Sorry,

pattern used are:

String x = "[a][b][.]";
String x = "[a][b].";
String x = "[a][b][\\d]";
String x = "[a][b]\\d";

I do not know how did I leave [b] in many places.