Question

I am trying to match “\b\w+:” inside the string “Search\nPrefix with tag: app: or text:”

The code looks like:

String s = "Search\nPrefix with tag: app: or text:";
SpannableString str = SpannableString.valueOf(s);
Pattern regex = Pattern.compile("\\b\\w+:");
Matcher m = regex.matcher(str);

while(m.find()) {
   // do stuff
}

I followed the code with the debugger, in Eclipse, and the while loop is never entered, meaning m.find() returns false.
I tried to change the regex to the straightforward

Pattern regex = Pattern.compile("app:");

It should work, right?, it is the same explicit text from the string. But still there is no match.
I suspect that the matcher stops matching when it reaches the newline in the string. And somehow there must be a flag or something to tell the matcher to scan the whole string.

Answer 1

My mistake, again.
I simplified the code to show it here, but in practice the while condition was

while(m.find() && --count>0)

, and count was the culprit. The regex was OK.

The conclusion is: “Go to sleep if you are too tired to work”