Question

I have a string I need to get array (2 – dim) of key->value pairs.

A “match” is when there is a -> between 2 words, mo spaces before and after ->

For example input string:

skip_me key1->value1 key2->value2 skip_me_2 key3->value3 skip_me_3 skip_me -> also

The result should be array:
key1,value1
key2,value2
key3,value3

This is my code:

Pattern p = Pattern.compile( "\\s*([^(->)]+)->([^(->)]+)\\s*" );
Matcher m = p.matcher("skip_me key1->value1 key2->value2 skip_me_2 key3->value3 skip_me_3");
while( m.find() ) {
  System.out.println( "Key:" + m.group(1) + "Value:" + m.group(2) );
}

My regex is wrong.
Please assist.

Answer 1

Matches word characters (letters, digits, and underscore _)… as many as it can

Pattern.compile( "(\w+)->(\w+)" );