I have the following Java code:
String data = "MaxL-450";
if(!data.matches("MaxL\\-*"))
throw new IllegalArgumentException("Did not match.");
When I execute it, the exception is thrown, because apparently the regex doesn't match my data string. Is there something wrong with my regex or is something else going on here? Thanks in advance.
* means zero or more occurrences of the previous character. You want something like "MaxL-[0-9]*", assuming you want to match a number after the dash.
Alternatively you could use "MaxL-\\d*". Note that you need two slashes in Java, since you need to escape the slash itself. Personally I like using explicit character classes (i.e. [0-9]) in Java, as its slightly easier to read as your regex inevitably gets longer and more complex.
Edit: Also, as Dave Newton points out, the escape slashes in front of the dash aren't necessary as the dash isn't inside a character class.
\d instead of [0-9].
MaxL\\-\d+ match against 1+ occurrences of any number? When I use that I get a compiler error...Invalid escape sequence (valid ones are \b \t \n \f \r \" \' \\ )... any ideas?
If you're looking for ANY chars after the hyphen:
if(!data.matches("MaxL\\-.*"))
throw new IllegalArgumentException("Did not match.");
