Question

I’d like to get a portion of a matched string coming from a Matcher, like this:

Pattern pat = Pattern.compile("a.*l.*z");
Matcher match = pat.matcher("abcdlmnoz"); // I'd want to get bcd AND mno
ArrayList<String> values = match.magic(); //here is where your magic happens =)

ArrayList<String> is only for this example, I could be happy to recieve either a List or individual String items. The best would be what.htaccess files and RewriteRule‘s do:

RewriteRule (.*)/path?(.*) $1/$2/modified-path/

Well, putting those (.*) into $arguments would be as cool as an ArrayList or accessing String separately. I’ve been looking for something at Java Matcher API, but I didn’t happen to see anything useful inside.

Thanks in advance, guys.

Answer 1

You can capture groups in a regexp match using (_):

Pattern pat = Pattern.compile("a(.*)l(.*)z");
boolean b = match.matches(); // don't forget to attempt the match

Then use match.group(n) to get that portion of the capture. The groups are stored in the match object.

• Capturing Groups^Oracle