Question

I need to check a pattern against some text (I have to check if my pattern is inside many texts).

This is my example

String pattern = "^[a-zA-Z ]*toto win(\\W)*[a-zA-Z ]*$";    
if("toto win because of".matches(pattern))
 System.out.println("we have a winner");
else
 System.out.println("we DON'T have a winner");

For my test, the pattern must match but using my regexp does not match.
Must match :

" toto win bla bla"

"toto win because of"
"toto win. bla bla"


"here. toto win. bla bla"
"here? toto win. bla bla"

"here %dfddfd . toto win. bla bla"

Must not match:

" -toto win bla bla"
" pretoto win bla bla"

I try to do it using my regexp but it does not work.

Can you point me what I’m doing wrong ?

Answer 1

This would work

(?im)^[?.\s%a-z]*?\btoto win\b.+$

Explanation

"(?im)" +         // Match the remainder of the regex with the options: case insensitive (i); ^ and $ match at line breaks (m)
"^" +             // Assert position at the beginning of a line (at beginning of the string or after a line break character)
"[?.\\s%a-z]" +    // Match a single character present in the list below
                     // One of the characters “?.”
                     // A whitespace character (spaces, tabs, and line breaks)
                     // The character “%”
                     // A character in the range between “a” and “z”
   "*?" +            // Between zero and unlimited times, as few times as possible, expanding as needed (lazy)
"\\b" +            // Assert position at a word boundary
"toto\\ win" +     // Match the characters “toto win” literally
"\\b" +            // Assert position at a word boundary
"." +             // Match any single character that is not a line break character
   "+" +             // Between one and unlimited times, as many times as possible, giving back as needed (greedy)
"$"               // Assert position at the end of a line (at the end of the string or before a line break character)

UPDATE 1

(?im)^[?~`'!@#$%^&*+.\s%a-z]*? toto win\b.*$

UPDATE 2

(?im)^[^-]*?\btoto win\b.*$

UPDATE 3

(?im)^.*?(?<!-)toto win\b.*$

Explanation

"(?im)" +       // Match the remainder of the regex with the options: case insensitive (i); ^ and $ match at line breaks (m)
"^" +           // Assert position at the beginning of a line (at beginning of the string or after a line break character)
"." +           // Match any single character that is not a line break character
   "*?" +          // Between zero and unlimited times, as few times as possible, expanding as needed (lazy)
"(?<!" +        // Assert that it is impossible to match the regex below with the match ending at this position (negative lookbehind)
   "-" +           // Match the character “-” literally
")" +
"toto\\ win" +   // Match the characters “toto win” literally
"\\b" +          // Assert position at a word boundary
"." +           // Match any single character that is not a line break character
   "*" +           // Between zero and unlimited times, as many times as possible, giving back as needed (greedy)
"$"             // Assert position at the end of a line (at the end of the string or before a line break character)

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RegEx need to escaped for using within code