Question

String input = scanner.nextLine();
Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile("the [a-z]+ jumped over the [a-z]+ ")
Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(input);
if (matcher.matches()) {
    // how do I print out what jumped over what???
}

In this example, someone will type something like “the cow jumped over the moon” or
“the fox jumped over the dog” or “the cat jumped over the mouse” …
I will need to be able to figure out what values they put into the two placeholders.
So my question is how do I get the values of the two [a-z]+ spots in the regex.

Answer 1

You use capturing groups which are marked by parantheses: "the ([a-z]+) jumped over the ([a-z]+)".

Then use matcher.group(1) and matcher.group(2) to retrieve them (group 0 is always the entire match).