Question

I want to make a regular expression that matches the form (+92)-(21)-1234…. I made this program

public static void main(String[] args) {

    // A regex and a string in which to search are specifi ed
    String regEx = "([+]\\d{2})-(\\d{2})-\\d+";
    String phoneNumber = "(+92)-(21)-1234567890";

    // Obtain the required matcher
    Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile(regEx);
    Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(phoneNumber);

    if (matcher.matches()) {
        System.out.println("Phone Number Valid");
    } else {
        System.out.println("Phone Number must be in the form (+xx)-(xx)-xxxxx..");
    }

} //end of main()

The regular expression i created like starts with the bracket((), +[+], two numbers(\d{2}), bracket close()), a dash(–), start bracket((), two numbers(\d{2}), bracket close()), a dash(–) and then any number of digits(\d+). But it is not working. What i am doing wrong?

Thanks

Answer 1

The regular expression i created like starts with the bracket(()

No, it starts with a grouping construct – that’s what an unescaped ( means in a regular expression. I haven’t looked at the rest of the expression in detail, but try just escaping the brackets:

String regEx = "\\([+]\\d{2}\\)-\\(\\d{2}\\)-\\d+";

Or a nicer (IMO) way of saying that you need the +

String regEx = "\\(\\+\\d{2}\\)-\\(\\d{2}\\)-\\d+";