Spring MongoDB query regex

Question

I'm trying to query MongoDB using spring but I can't get my regex to work.

I have a tree in mongodb as Materialized Paths as in MongoDB docs (http://www.mongodb.org/display/DOCS/Trees+in+MongoDB).

In the shell the query

db.categories.find({path:/^\w+,$/})

works fine to find the path before the first comma.

Ex.: {"path" : "a,"} gets returned but not {"path: "a,b,"} which is what I want.

How do I make the same query in spring? I've tried:

new Query(Criteria.where("path").regex("/^\\w+,$/"))

but this doesn't work.

Thank you

I don't know this Spring-MongoDB stuff. However, I know that you need to double-escape back-slashes in Java regexes. Also, you don't need the starting and ending slashes either: .regex("^\\\\w+,$") should work. — Tamas Rev
– Tamas Rev, Commented Oct 5, 2012 at 20:38

Henrique Gonçalves · Accepted Answer · 2012-10-05 22:28:43Z

5

I just solved my problem.

query = new Query(Criteria.where("path").regex("^([A-Z]|[a-z])+,$"));

although \w stands for "any word character" which usually means alphanumeric, I just need the alphabet characters.

I can later throw [0-9] and \_ to have the same as \w.

If someone can explain how to make \w to work, I'll be very thankful :)

answered Oct 5, 2012 at 22:28

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2 Comments

in you first example you've used / int he begining an end, whereas in the second you didn't use / character.

Like 'tamas rev' said on the question comment, there is no need to use those slashes