Develop Reference

Java recursive/repeated regex

I am trying to replace all .(periods) with keyword XXX which lie within an alphanumeric word in a large text.
For example: I am trying to match a.b.c.d.e ...
Expected output: I am trying to match aXXXbXXXcXXXdXXXe ...
Pattern I used: (\w+)([\.]+)(\w+)
Actual result: I am trying to match aXXXb.cXXXd.e ...
How can I get expected output via regex without using any code/stubs.

You can use lookarounds:
str = str.replaceAll("(?<=[a-zA-Z0-9])\\.(?=[a-zA-Z0-9])", "XXX");
RegEx Demo
Lookaround Reference

Why don't you do something like if you want to change all . -
str = str.replaceAll("\\.", "XXX");
Or below if you don't want to change . if any first or last index -
str = str.replaceAll("\\.", "XXX").replaceAll("^XXX", ".").replaceAll("XXX$", ".");

Java(Apex) RegEx not working?

I am having trouble with a regex in salesforce, apex. As I saw that apex is using the same syntax and logic as apex, I aimed this at java developers also.
I debugged the String and it is correct. street equals 'str 3 B'.
When using http://www.regexr.com/, the regex works('\d \w$').
The code:
Matcher hasString = Pattern.compile('\\d \\w$').matcher(street);
if(hasString.matches())
My problem is, that hasString.matches() resolves to false. Can anyone tell me if I did something somewhere wrong? I tried to use it without the $, with difference casing, etc. and I just can't get it to work.
Thanks in advance!

You need to use find instead of matches for partial input match as matches attempts to match complete input text.
Matcher hasString = Pattern.compile("\\d \\w$").matcher(street);
if(hasString.find()) {
// matched
System.out.println("Start position: " + hasString.start());
}

How can I manipulate part of a string in java using regular expressions

I have a string that looks like this:
String pathTokenString = "CMS/{brandPath}/Shows/{showPath}";
I want to remove the Shows part and everything that follows. I also want to replace "{brandPath}" with a token that I'm given.
This has been my approach. However, my string isn't getting updated at all:
//remove the '/Shows/{showPath}'
pathTokenString = pathTokenString.replace("/Shows$", "");
//replace passed in brandPath in the tokenString
String answer = pathTokenString.replace("{(.*?)}", brandPath);
Is there something wrong with my regular expressions?

You should use the replaceAll method instead of replace when you want to pass a regex string as the pattern to be replaced. Also your regex patterns should be updated:
pathTokenString = pathTokenString.replaceAll("/Shows.*$", "");
// The curly braces need to be escaped because they denote quantifiers
String answer = pathTokenString.replaceAll("\\{(.*?)\\}", brandPath);

Java regular expression for extracting the data between tags

I am trying to a regular expression which extracs the data from a string like
<B Att="text">Test</B><C>Test1</C>
The extracted output needs to be Test and Test1. This is what I have done till now:
public class HelloWorld {
public static void main(String[] args)
{
String s = "<B>Test</B>";
String reg = "<.*?>(.*)<\\/.*?>";
Pattern p = Pattern.compile(reg);
Matcher m = p.matcher(s);
while(m.find())
{
String s1 = m.group();
System.out.println(s1);
}
}
}
But this is producing the result <B>Test</B>. Can anybody point out what I am doing wrong?

Three problems:
Your test string is incorrect.
You need a non-greedy modifier in the group.
You need to specify which group you want (group 1).
Try this:
String s = "<B Att=\"text\">Test</B><C>Test1</C>"; // <-- Fix 1
String reg = "<.*?>(.*?)</.*?>"; // <-- Fix 2
// ...
String s1 = m.group(1); // <-- Fix 3
You also don't need to escape a forward slash, so I removed that.
See it running on ideone.
(Also, don't use regular expressions to parse HTML - use an HTML parser.)

If u are using eclipse there is nice plugin that will help you check your regular expression without writing any class to check it.
Here is link:
http://regex-util.sourceforge.net/update/
You will need to show view by choosing Window -> Show View -> Other, and than Regex Util
I hope it will help you fighting with regular expressions

It almost looks like you're trying to use regex on XML and/or HTML. I'd suggest not using regex and instead creating a parser or lexer to handle this type of arrangement.

I think the bestway to handle and get value of XML nodes is just treating it as an XML.
If you really want to stick to regex try:
<B[^>]*>(.+?)</B\s*>
understanding that you will get always the value of B tag.
Or if you want the value of any tag you will be using something like:
<.*?>(.*?)</.*?>

java email extraction regular expression?

I would like a regular expression that will extract email addresses from a String (using Java regular expressions).
That really works.

Here's the regular expression that really works.
I've spent an hour surfing on the web and testing different approaches,
and most of them didn't work although Google top-ranked those pages.
I want to share with you a working regular expression:
[_A-Za-z0-9-]+(\\.[_A-Za-z0-9-]+)*#[A-Za-z0-9]+(\\.[A-Za-z0-9]+)*(\\.[A-Za-z]{2,})
Here's the original link:
http://www.mkyong.com/regular-expressions/how-to-validate-email-address-with-regular-expression/

I had to add some dashes to allow for them. So a final result in Javanese:
final String MAIL_REGEX = "([_A-Za-z0-9-]+)(\\.[_A-Za-z0-9-]+)*#[A-Za-z0-9-]+(\\.[A-Za-z0-9-]+)*(\\.[A-Za-z]{2,})";

Install this regex tester plugin into eclipse, and you'd have whale of a time testing regex
http://brosinski.com/regex/.
Points to note:
In the plugin, use only one backslash for character escape. But when you transcribe the regex into a Java/C# string you would have to double them as you would be performing two escapes, first escaping the backslash from Java/C# string mechanism, and then second for the actual regex character escape mechanism.
Surround the sections of the regex whose text you wish to capture with round brackets/ellipses. Then, you could use the group functions in Java or C# regex to find out the values of those sections.
([_A-Za-z0-9-]+)(\.[_A-Za-z0-9-]+)#([A-Za-z0-9]+)(\.[A-Za-z0-9]+)
For example, using the above regex, the following string
abc.efg#asdf.cde
yields
start=0, end=16
Group(0) = abc.efg#asdf.cde
Group(1) = abc
Group(2) = .efg
Group(3) = asdf
Group(4) = .cde
Group 0 is always the capture of whole string matched.
If you do not enclose any section with ellipses, you would only be able to detect a match but not be able to capture the text.
It might be less confusing to create a few regex than one long catch-all regex, since you could programmatically test one by one, and then decide which regexes should be consolidated. Especially when you find a new email pattern that you had never considered before.

a little late but ok.
Here is what i use. Just paste it in the console of FireBug and run it. Look on the webpage for a 'Textarea' (Most likely on the bottom of the page) That will contain a , seperated list of all email address found in A tags.
var jquery = document.createElement('script');
jquery.setAttribute('src', 'http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.10.1.min.js');
document.body.appendChild(jquery);
var list = document.createElement('textarea');
list.setAttribute('emaillist');
document.body.appendChild(list);
var lijst = "";
$("#emaillist").val("");
$("a").each(function(idx,el){
var mail = $(el).filter('[href*="#"]').attr("href");
if(mail){
lijst += mail.replace("mailto:", "")+",";
}
});
$("#emaillist").val(lijst);

The Java 's build-in email address pattern (Patterns.EMAIL_ADDRESS) works perfectly:
public static List<String> getEmails(#NonNull String input) {
List<String> emails = new ArrayList<>();
Matcher matcher = Patterns.EMAIL_ADDRESS.matcher(input);
while (matcher.find()) {
int matchStart = matcher.start(0);
int matchEnd = matcher.end(0);
emails.add(input.substring(matchStart, matchEnd));
}
return emails;
}