java regex allow optional space character

Question

I am trying to create a regex pattern to match abcdef, abc def, etc.

The patterns I tried are:

[a-z]{3}[\s?][a-z]{3}
[a-z]{3}[\s*][a-z]{3}
[\w]{3}[\s?][\w]{3}
\w{3}\s?\w{3}

All of these seem to work for abc def, but not for abcdef.

{EDIT}

AB CD 12 ABC/15 DEF
.*\bAB CD\b\s?(\d+)\s?\bABC\b[/](\d+)\s?\bDEF\b

i am trying to extract 12 and 15.

java-regex-tester.appspot.com i tried here .. as well through code .. — l a s
– l a s, Commented Jul 31, 2013 at 23:26
Your first 3 are wrong because they include the question mark and asterisk within the square brackets, meaning "find a single character which can be a whitespace char or a question mark" -- when inside the [character set] the ? and * do not mean "0 or 1" and "0 or more" — Stephen P
– Stephen P, Commented Aug 1, 2013 at 1:06
though it works fine in the sites, it doesn't work in the code where i try to extract data using groups, matcher and pattern java methods. — l a s
– l a s, Commented Aug 1, 2013 at 3:15

SomeShinyObject · Accepted Answer · 2013-07-31 23:22:39Z

4

How about:

[\w]{3}\s?[\w]{3}

or any of the other combinations. Just remove the \s from the brackets or put the quantifier (i.e. * and ?) outside of the bracket for the space selector:

[\w]{3}[\s]?[\w]{3}

Your bottom one should work too.

answered Jul 31, 2013 at 23:22

SomeShinyObject

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1 Comment

l a s Over a year ago

though it works fine in the sites, it doesn't work in the code where i try to extract data using groups, matcher and pattern java methods.

exussum · Accepted Answer · 2013-08-01 06:46:27Z

1

First one is close

[a-z]{3}\s?[a-z]{3}

Take the ? Out of the square brackets

java will not be reading it correct. you will need to.escape the \s to \s

edited Aug 1, 2013 at 6:46

answered Jul 31, 2013 at 23:22

exussum

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2 Comments

l a s Over a year ago

though it works fine in the sites, it doesn't work in the code where i try to extract data using groups, matcher and pattern java methods.

exussum Over a year ago

escape the back slash with another backslash

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