MatchResult
public final class Matcher extends Object implements MatchResult
Pattern
. A matcher is created from a pattern by invoking the pattern's matcher
method. Once created, a matcher can be used to perform three different kinds of match operations:
The matches
method attempts to match the entire input sequence against the pattern.
The lookingAt
method attempts to match the input sequence, starting at the beginning, against the pattern.
The find
method scans the input sequence looking for the next subsequence that matches the pattern.
Each of these methods returns a boolean indicating success or failure. More information about a successful match can be obtained by querying the state of the matcher.
A matcher finds matches in a subset of its input called the region. By default, the region contains all of the matcher's input. The region can be modified via the region
method and queried via the regionStart
and regionEnd
methods. The way that the region boundaries interact with some pattern constructs can be changed. See useAnchoringBounds
and useTransparentBounds
for more details.
This class also defines methods for replacing matched subsequences with new strings whose contents can, if desired, be computed from the match result. The appendReplacement
and appendTail
methods can be used in tandem in order to collect the result into an existing string buffer or string builder. Alternatively, the more convenient replaceAll
method can be used to create a string in which every matching subsequence in the input sequence is replaced.
The explicit state of a matcher includes the start and end indices of the most recent successful match. It also includes the start and end indices of the input subsequence captured by each capturing group in the pattern as well as a total count of such subsequences. As a convenience, methods are also provided for returning these captured subsequences in string form.
The explicit state of a matcher is initially undefined; attempting to query any part of it before a successful match will cause an IllegalStateException
to be thrown. The explicit state of a matcher is recomputed by every match operation.
The implicit state of a matcher includes the input character sequence as well as the append position, which is initially zero and is updated by the appendReplacement
method.
A matcher may be reset explicitly by invoking its reset()
method or, if a new input sequence is desired, its reset(CharSequence)
method. Resetting a matcher discards its explicit state information and sets the append position to zero.
Instances of this class are not safe for use by multiple concurrent threads.
Modifier and Type | Method | Description |
---|---|---|
Matcher |
appendReplacement |
Implements a non-terminal append-and-replace step. |
Matcher |
appendReplacement |
Implements a non-terminal append-and-replace step. |
StringBuffer |
appendTail |
Implements a terminal append-and-replace step. |
StringBuilder |
appendTail |
Implements a terminal append-and-replace step. |
int |
end() |
Returns the offset after the last character matched. |
int |
end |
Returns the offset after the last character of the subsequence captured by the given group during the previous match operation. |
int |
end |
Returns the offset after the last character of the subsequence captured by the given named-capturing group during the previous match operation. |
boolean |
find() |
Attempts to find the next subsequence of the input sequence that matches the pattern. |
boolean |
find |
Resets this matcher and then attempts to find the next subsequence of the input sequence that matches the pattern, starting at the specified index. |
String |
group() |
Returns the input subsequence matched by the previous match. |
String |
group |
Returns the input subsequence captured by the given group during the previous match operation. |
String |
group |
Returns the input subsequence captured by the given named-capturing group during the previous match operation. |
int |
groupCount() |
Returns the number of capturing groups in this matcher's pattern. |
boolean |
hasAnchoringBounds() |
Queries the anchoring of region bounds for this matcher. |
boolean |
hasMatch() |
Returns whether this contains a valid match from a previous match or find operation. |
boolean |
hasTransparentBounds() |
Queries the transparency of region bounds for this matcher. |
boolean |
hitEnd() |
Returns true if the end of input was hit by the search engine in the last match operation performed by this matcher. |
boolean |
lookingAt() |
Attempts to match the input sequence, starting at the beginning of the region, against the pattern. |
boolean |
matches() |
Attempts to match the entire region against the pattern. |
Map |
namedGroups() |
Returns an unmodifiable map from capturing group names to group numbers. |
Pattern |
pattern() |
Returns the pattern that is interpreted by this matcher. |
static String |
quoteReplacement |
Returns a literal replacement String for the specified String . |
Matcher |
region |
Sets the limits of this matcher's region. |
int |
regionEnd() |
Reports the end index (exclusive) of this matcher's region. |
int |
regionStart() |
Reports the start index of this matcher's region. |
String |
replaceAll |
Replaces every subsequence of the input sequence that matches the pattern with the given replacement string. |
String |
replaceAll |
Replaces every subsequence of the input sequence that matches the pattern with the result of applying the given replacer function to the match result of this matcher corresponding to that subsequence. |
String |
replaceFirst |
Replaces the first subsequence of the input sequence that matches the pattern with the given replacement string. |
String |
replaceFirst |
Replaces the first subsequence of the input sequence that matches the pattern with the result of applying the given replacer function to the match result of this matcher corresponding to that subsequence. |
boolean |
requireEnd() |
Returns true if more input could change a positive match into a negative one. |
Matcher |
reset() |
Resets this matcher. |
Matcher |
reset |
Resets this matcher with a new input sequence. |
Stream |
results() |
Returns a stream of match results for each subsequence of the input sequence that matches the pattern. |
int |
start() |
Returns the start index of the previous match. |
int |
start |
Returns the start index of the subsequence captured by the given group during the previous match operation. |
int |
start |
Returns the start index of the subsequence captured by the given named-capturing group during the previous match operation. |
MatchResult |
toMatchResult() |
Returns the match state of this matcher as a MatchResult . |
String |
toString() |
Returns the string representation of this matcher. |
Matcher |
useAnchoringBounds |
Sets the anchoring of region bounds for this matcher. |
Matcher |
usePattern |
Changes the Pattern that this Matcher uses to find matches with. |
Matcher |
useTransparentBounds |
Sets the transparency of region bounds for this matcher. |
public Pattern pattern()
public MatchResult toMatchResult()
MatchResult
. The result is unaffected by subsequent operations performed upon this matcher.MatchResult
with the state of this matcherpublic Matcher usePattern(Pattern newPattern)
Pattern
that this Matcher
uses to find matches with. This method causes this matcher to lose information about the groups of the last match that occurred. The matcher's position in the input is maintained and its last append position is unaffected.
newPattern
- The new pattern used by this matcherIllegalArgumentException
- If newPattern is null
public Matcher reset()
Resetting a matcher discards all of its explicit state information and sets its append position to zero. The matcher's region is set to the default region, which is its entire character sequence. The anchoring and transparency of this matcher's region boundaries are unaffected.
public Matcher reset(CharSequence input)
Resetting a matcher discards all of its explicit state information and sets its append position to zero. The matcher's region is set to the default region, which is its entire character sequence. The anchoring and transparency of this matcher's region boundaries are unaffected.
input
- The new input character sequencepublic int start()
start
in interface MatchResult
IllegalStateException
- If no match has yet been attempted, or if the previous match operation failedpublic int start(int group)
Capturing groups are indexed from left to right, starting at one. Group zero denotes the entire pattern, so the expression m.start(0)
is equivalent to m.start()
.
start
in interface MatchResult
group
- The index of a capturing group in this matcher's pattern-1
if the match was successful but the group itself did not match anythingIllegalStateException
- If no match has yet been attempted, or if the previous match operation failedIndexOutOfBoundsException
- If there is no capturing group in the pattern with the given indexpublic int start(String name)
start
in interface MatchResult
name
- The name of a named-capturing group in this matcher's pattern-1
if the match was successful but the group itself did not match anythingIllegalStateException
- If no match has yet been attempted, or if the previous match operation failedIllegalArgumentException
- If there is no capturing group in the pattern with the given namepublic int end()
end
in interface MatchResult
IllegalStateException
- If no match has yet been attempted, or if the previous match operation failedpublic int end(int group)
Capturing groups are indexed from left to right, starting at one. Group zero denotes the entire pattern, so the expression m.end(0)
is equivalent to m.end()
.
end
in interface MatchResult
group
- The index of a capturing group in this matcher's pattern-1
if the match was successful but the group itself did not match anythingIllegalStateException
- If no match has yet been attempted, or if the previous match operation failedIndexOutOfBoundsException
- If there is no capturing group in the pattern with the given indexpublic int end(String name)
end
in interface MatchResult
name
- The name of a named-capturing group in this matcher's pattern-1
if the match was successful but the group itself did not match anythingIllegalStateException
- If no match has yet been attempted, or if the previous match operation failedIllegalArgumentException
- If there is no capturing group in the pattern with the given namepublic String group()
For a matcher m with input sequence s, the expressions m.group()
and s.substring(
m.start(),
m. end())
are equivalent.
Note that some patterns, for example a*
, match the empty string. This method will return the empty string when the pattern successfully matches the empty string in the input.
group
in interface MatchResult
null
if a matcher with a previous match has changed its Pattern
, but no new match has yet been attemptedIllegalStateException
- If no match has yet been attempted, or if the previous match operation failedpublic String group(int group)
For a matcher m, input sequence s, and group index g, the expressions m.group(
g)
and s.substring(
m.start(
g
),
m.end(
g))
are equivalent.
Capturing groups are indexed from left to right, starting at one. Group zero denotes the entire pattern, so the expression m.group(0)
is equivalent to m.group()
.
If the match was successful but the group specified failed to match any part of the input sequence, then null
is returned. Note that some groups, for example (a*)
, match the empty string. This method will return the empty string when such a group successfully matches the empty string in the input.
group
in interface MatchResult
group
- The index of a capturing group in this matcher's patternnull
if the group failed to match part of the input or if the matcher's Pattern
has changed after a successful match, but a new match has not been attemptedIllegalStateException
- If no match has yet been attempted, or if the previous match operation failedIndexOutOfBoundsException
- If there is no capturing group in the pattern with the given indexpublic String group(String name)
If the match was successful but the group specified failed to match any part of the input sequence, then null
is returned. Note that some groups, for example (a*)
, match the empty string. This method will return the empty string when such a group successfully matches the empty string in the input.
group
in interface MatchResult
name
- The name of a named-capturing group in this matcher's patternnull
if the group failed to match part of the inputIllegalStateException
- If no match has yet been attempted, or if the previous match operation failedIllegalArgumentException
- If there is no capturing group in the pattern with the given namepublic int groupCount()
Group zero denotes the entire pattern by convention. It is not included in this count.
Any non-negative integer smaller than or equal to the value returned by this method is guaranteed to be a valid group index for this matcher.
groupCount
in interface MatchResult
public boolean matches()
If the match succeeds then more information can be obtained via the start
, end
, and group
methods.
true
if, and only if, the entire region sequence matches this matcher's patternpublic boolean find()
This method starts at the beginning of this matcher's region, or, if a previous invocation of the method was successful and the matcher has not since been reset, at the first character not matched by the previous match.
If the match succeeds then more information can be obtained via the start
, end
, and group
methods.
true
if, and only if, a subsequence of the input sequence matches this matcher's patternpublic boolean find(int start)
If the match succeeds then more information can be obtained via the start
, end
, and group
methods, and subsequent invocations of the find()
method will start at the first character not matched by this match.
start
- the index to start searching for a matchtrue
if, and only if, a subsequence of the input sequence starting at the given index matches this matcher's patternIndexOutOfBoundsException
- If start is less than zero or if start is greater than the length of the input sequence.public boolean lookingAt()
Like the matches
method, this method always starts at the beginning of the region; unlike that method, it does not require that the entire region be matched.
If the match succeeds then more information can be obtained via the start
, end
, and group
methods.
true
if, and only if, a prefix of the input sequence matches this matcher's patternpublic static String quoteReplacement(String s)
String
for the specified String
. This method produces a String
that will work as a literal replacement s
in the appendReplacement
method of the Matcher
class. The String
produced will match the sequence of characters in s
treated as a literal sequence. Slashes ('\') and dollar signs ('$') will be given no special meaning.s
- The string to be literalizedpublic Matcher appendReplacement(StringBuffer sb, String replacement)
This method performs the following actions:
It reads characters from the input sequence, starting at the append position, and appends them to the given string buffer. It stops after reading the last character preceding the previous match, that is, the character at index start()
-
1
.
It appends the given replacement string to the string buffer.
It sets the append position of this matcher to the index of the last character matched, plus one, that is, to end()
.
The replacement string may contain references to subsequences captured during the previous match: Each occurrence of ${
name}
or $
g will be replaced by the result of evaluating the corresponding group(name)
or group(g)
respectively. For $
g, the first number after the $
is always treated as part of the group reference. Subsequent numbers are incorporated into g if they would form a legal group reference. Only the numerals '0' through '9' are considered as potential components of the group reference. If the second group matched the string "foo"
, for example, then passing the replacement string "$2bar"
would cause "foobar"
to be appended to the string buffer. A dollar sign ($
) may be included as a literal in the replacement string by preceding it with a backslash (\$
).
Note that backslashes (\
) and dollar signs ($
) in the replacement string may cause the results to be different than if it were being treated as a literal replacement string. Dollar signs may be treated as references to captured subsequences as described above, and backslashes are used to escape literal characters in the replacement string.
This method is intended to be used in a loop together with the appendTail
and find
methods. The following code, for example, writes one dog two dogs
in the yard
to the standard-output stream:
Pattern p = Pattern.compile("cat"); Matcher m = p.matcher("one cat two cats in the yard"); StringBuffer sb = new StringBuffer(); while (m.find()) { m.appendReplacement(sb, "dog"); } m.appendTail(sb); System.out.println(sb.toString());
sb
- The target string bufferreplacement
- The replacement stringIllegalStateException
- If no match has yet been attempted, or if the previous match operation failedIllegalArgumentException
- If the replacement string refers to a named-capturing group that does not exist in the patternIndexOutOfBoundsException
- If the replacement string refers to a capturing group that does not exist in the patternpublic Matcher appendReplacement(StringBuilder sb, String replacement)
This method performs the following actions:
It reads characters from the input sequence, starting at the append position, and appends them to the given string builder. It stops after reading the last character preceding the previous match, that is, the character at index start()
-
1
.
It appends the given replacement string to the string builder.
It sets the append position of this matcher to the index of the last character matched, plus one, that is, to end()
.
The replacement string may contain references to subsequences captured during the previous match: Each occurrence of $
g will be replaced by the result of evaluating group
(
g)
. The first number after the $
is always treated as part of the group reference. Subsequent numbers are incorporated into g if they would form a legal group reference. Only the numerals '0' through '9' are considered as potential components of the group reference. If the second group matched the string "foo"
, for example, then passing the replacement string "$2bar"
would cause "foobar"
to be appended to the string builder. A dollar sign ($
) may be included as a literal in the replacement string by preceding it with a backslash (\$
).
Note that backslashes (\
) and dollar signs ($
) in the replacement string may cause the results to be different than if it were being treated as a literal replacement string. Dollar signs may be treated as references to captured subsequences as described above, and backslashes are used to escape literal characters in the replacement string.
This method is intended to be used in a loop together with the appendTail
and find
methods. The following code, for example, writes one dog two dogs in the yard
to the standard-output stream:
Pattern p = Pattern.compile("cat"); Matcher m = p.matcher("one cat two cats in the yard"); StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(); while (m.find()) { m.appendReplacement(sb, "dog"); } m.appendTail(sb); System.out.println(sb.toString());
sb
- The target string builderreplacement
- The replacement stringIllegalStateException
- If no match has yet been attempted, or if the previous match operation failedIllegalArgumentException
- If the replacement string refers to a named-capturing group that does not exist in the patternIndexOutOfBoundsException
- If the replacement string refers to a capturing group that does not exist in the patternpublic StringBuffer appendTail(StringBuffer sb)
This method reads characters from the input sequence, starting at the append position, and appends them to the given string buffer. It is intended to be invoked after one or more invocations of the appendReplacement
method in order to copy the remainder of the input sequence.
sb
- The target string bufferpublic StringBuilder appendTail(StringBuilder sb)
This method reads characters from the input sequence, starting at the append position, and appends them to the given string builder. It is intended to be invoked after one or more invocations of the appendReplacement
method in order to copy the remainder of the input sequence.
sb
- The target string builderpublic String replaceAll(String replacement)
This method first resets this matcher. It then scans the input sequence looking for matches of the pattern. Characters that are not part of any match are appended directly to the result string; each match is replaced in the result by the replacement string. The replacement string may contain references to captured subsequences as in the appendReplacement
method.
Note that backslashes (\
) and dollar signs ($
) in the replacement string may cause the results to be different than if it were being treated as a literal replacement string. Dollar signs may be treated as references to captured subsequences as described above, and backslashes are used to escape literal characters in the replacement string.
Given the regular expression a*b
, the input "aabfooaabfooabfoob"
, and the replacement string "-"
, an invocation of this method on a matcher for that expression would yield the string "-foo-foo-foo-"
.
Invoking this method changes this matcher's state. If the matcher is to be used in further matching operations then it should first be reset.
replacement
- The replacement stringpublic String replaceAll(Function<MatchResult,String> replacer)
This method first resets this matcher. It then scans the input sequence looking for matches of the pattern. Characters that are not part of any match are appended directly to the result string; each match is replaced in the result by the applying the replacer function that returns a replacement string. Each replacement string may contain references to captured subsequences as in the appendReplacement
method.
Note that backslashes (\
) and dollar signs ($
) in a replacement string may cause the results to be different than if it were being treated as a literal replacement string. Dollar signs may be treated as references to captured subsequences as described above, and backslashes are used to escape literal characters in the replacement string.
Given the regular expression dog
, the input "zzzdogzzzdogzzz"
, and the function mr -> mr.group().toUpperCase()
, an invocation of this method on a matcher for that expression would yield the string "zzzDOGzzzDOGzzz"
.
Invoking this method changes this matcher's state. If the matcher is to be used in further matching operations then it should first be reset.
The replacer function should not modify this matcher's state during replacement. This method will, on a best-effort basis, throw a ConcurrentModificationException
if such modification is detected.
The state of each match result passed to the replacer function is guaranteed to be constant only for the duration of the replacer function call and only if the replacer function does not modify this matcher's state.
MatchResult
.replacer
- The function to be applied to the match result of this matcher that returns a replacement string.NullPointerException
- if the replacer function is nullConcurrentModificationException
- if it is detected, on a best-effort basis, that the replacer function modified this matcher's statepublic Stream<MatchResult> results()
Each match result is produced as if by toMatchResult()
.
This method does not reset this matcher. Matching starts on initiation of the terminal stream operation either at the beginning of this matcher's region, or, if the matcher has not since been reset, at the first character not matched by a previous match.
If the matcher is to be used for further matching operations after the terminal stream operation completes then it should be first reset.
This matcher's state should not be modified during execution of the returned stream's pipeline. The returned stream's source Spliterator
is fail-fast and will, on a best-effort basis, throw a ConcurrentModificationException
if such modification is detected.
public String replaceFirst(String replacement)
This method first resets this matcher. It then scans the input sequence looking for a match of the pattern. Characters that are not part of the match are appended directly to the result string; the match is replaced in the result by the replacement string. The replacement string may contain references to captured subsequences as in the appendReplacement
method.
Note that backslashes (\
) and dollar signs ($
) in the replacement string may cause the results to be different than if it were being treated as a literal replacement string. Dollar signs may be treated as references to captured subsequences as described above, and backslashes are used to escape literal characters in the replacement string.
Given the regular expression dog
, the input "zzzdogzzzdogzzz"
, and the replacement string "cat"
, an invocation of this method on a matcher for that expression would yield the string "zzzcatzzzdogzzz"
.
Invoking this method changes this matcher's state. If the matcher is to be used in further matching operations then it should first be reset.
replacement
- The replacement stringpublic String replaceFirst(Function<MatchResult,String> replacer)
This method first resets this matcher. It then scans the input sequence looking for a match of the pattern. Characters that are not part of the match are appended directly to the result string; the match is replaced in the result by the applying the replacer function that returns a replacement string. The replacement string may contain references to captured subsequences as in the appendReplacement
method.
Note that backslashes (\
) and dollar signs ($
) in the replacement string may cause the results to be different than if it were being treated as a literal replacement string. Dollar signs may be treated as references to captured subsequences as described above, and backslashes are used to escape literal characters in the replacement string.
Given the regular expression dog
, the input "zzzdogzzzdogzzz"
, and the function mr -> mr.group().toUpperCase()
, an invocation of this method on a matcher for that expression would yield the string "zzzDOGzzzdogzzz"
.
Invoking this method changes this matcher's state. If the matcher is to be used in further matching operations then it should first be reset.
The replacer function should not modify this matcher's state during replacement. This method will, on a best-effort basis, throw a ConcurrentModificationException
if such modification is detected.
The state of the match result passed to the replacer function is guaranteed to be constant only for the duration of the replacer function call and only if the replacer function does not modify this matcher's state.
MatchResult
.replacer
- The function to be applied to the match result of this matcher that returns a replacement string.NullPointerException
- if the replacer function is nullConcurrentModificationException
- if it is detected, on a best-effort basis, that the replacer function modified this matcher's statepublic Matcher region(int start, int end)
start
parameter and end at the index specified by the end
parameter. Depending on the transparency and anchoring being used (see useTransparentBounds
and useAnchoringBounds
), certain constructs such as anchors may behave differently at or around the boundaries of the region.
start
- The index to start searching at (inclusive)end
- The index to end searching at (exclusive)IndexOutOfBoundsException
- If start or end is less than zero, if start is greater than the length of the input sequence, if end is greater than the length of the input sequence, or if start is greater than end.public int regionStart()
regionStart
(inclusive) and regionEnd
(exclusive).public int regionEnd()
regionStart
(inclusive) and regionEnd
(exclusive).public boolean hasTransparentBounds()
This method returns true
if this matcher uses transparent bounds, false
if it uses opaque bounds.
See useTransparentBounds
for a description of transparent and opaque bounds.
By default, a matcher uses opaque region boundaries.
true
iff this matcher is using transparent bounds, false
otherwise.public Matcher useTransparentBounds(boolean b)
Invoking this method with an argument of true
will set this matcher to use transparent bounds. If the boolean argument is false
, then opaque bounds will be used.
Using transparent bounds, the boundaries of this matcher's region are transparent to lookahead, lookbehind, and boundary matching constructs. Those constructs can see beyond the boundaries of the region to see if a match is appropriate.
Using opaque bounds, the boundaries of this matcher's region are opaque to lookahead, lookbehind, and boundary matching constructs that may try to see beyond them. Those constructs cannot look past the boundaries so they will fail to match anything outside of the region.
By default, a matcher uses opaque bounds.
b
- a boolean indicating whether to use opaque or transparent regionspublic boolean hasAnchoringBounds()
This method returns true
if this matcher uses anchoring bounds, false
otherwise.
See useAnchoringBounds
for a description of anchoring bounds.
By default, a matcher uses anchoring region boundaries.
true
iff this matcher is using anchoring bounds, false
otherwise.public Matcher useAnchoringBounds(boolean b)
Invoking this method with an argument of true
will set this matcher to use anchoring bounds. If the boolean argument is false
, then non-anchoring bounds will be used.
Using anchoring bounds, the boundaries of this matcher's region match anchors such as ^ and $.
Without anchoring bounds, the boundaries of this matcher's region will not match anchors such as ^ and $.
By default, a matcher uses anchoring region boundaries.
b
- a boolean indicating whether or not to use anchoring bounds.public String toString()
Returns the string representation of this matcher. The string representation of a Matcher
contains information that may be useful for debugging. The exact format is unspecified.
public boolean hitEnd()
Returns true if the end of input was hit by the search engine in the last match operation performed by this matcher.
When this method returns true, then it is possible that more input would have changed the result of the last search.
public boolean requireEnd()
Returns true if more input could change a positive match into a negative one.
If this method returns true, and a match was found, then more input could cause the match to be lost. If this method returns false and a match was found, then more input might change the match but the match won't be lost. If a match was not found, then requireEnd has no meaning.
public Map<String,Integer> namedGroups()
namedGroups
in interface MatchResult
public boolean hasMatch()
this
contains a valid match from a previous match or find operation.hasMatch
in interface MatchResult
this
contains a valid match
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Documentation extracted from Debian's OpenJDK Development Kit package.
Licensed under the GNU General Public License, version 2, with the Classpath Exception.
Various third party code in OpenJDK is licensed under different licenses (see Debian package).
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https://docs.oracle.com/en/java/javase/21/docs/api/java.base/java/util/regex/Matcher.html