Question

Consider this code:

String path = "c:\\temp";
Pattern myPattern = Pattern.compile(".*filename.XLS.*.\\d{8}_\\d{6}");

How can I replace the first “.*” in myPattern so that path is included in the Regex ?
Something along the lines of

Pattern myPattern = Pattern.compile(path + "filename.XLS.*.\\d{8}_\\d{6}");

which obviously does not work .. 🙂

Cheers,
Tim

Answer 1

You have to escape the backslashes twice:

String path = "c:\\\\temp";
Pattern myPattern = Pattern.compile(path + "filename.XLS.*.\\d{8}_\\d{6}");

Once for java and than again for the regular expression.