Question

I want to write matching expression to read string between parentheses () from a big string. eg: the big string is:-

(something), (something2), (something3)

How can I write matching expression for this to read something, something2, something3 in groups.

Answer 1

You can’t read all those groups in one go but using Matcher#find() and this expression you might read those: \(([^\(\)]*)\) (reads: match must start with (, must contain any number of characters not being ( or ) – those form your group – , and must end with ) ).

Note that the escape in the brackets is not necessary, but done for consistency, since they are needed outside.

Pattern p = Pattern.compile("\\(([^\\(\\)]*)\\)");
Matcher m = p.matcher( "(something), (something2), (something3)" );

while(m.find())
{
  System.out.println(m.group( 1 ));
}

This prints:

something
something2
something3