Question

For the string value "ABCD_12" (including quotes), I would like to extract only the content and exclude out the double quotes i.e. ABCD_12 . My code is:

private static void checkRegex()
{
    final Pattern stringPattern = Pattern.compile("\"([a-zA-Z_0-9])+\"");
    Matcher findMatches = stringPattern.matcher("\"ABC_12\"");
    if (findMatches.matches())
        System.out.println("Match found" + findMatches.group(0));
}

Now I have tried doing findMatches.group(1);, but that only returns the last character in the string (I did not understand why !).

How can I extract only the content leaving out the double quotes?

Answer 1

Try this regex:

Pattern.compile("\"([a-zA-Z_0-9]+)\"");

OR

Pattern.compile("\"([^\"]+)\"");

Problem in your code is a misplaced + outside right parenthesis. Which is causing capturing group to capture only 1 character (since + is outside) and that’s why you get only last character eventually.