java regex failing for multiple group

Question

Below regex is working fine in most of the regex tools. However, its not working in the java code. Can anyone please advise?

String text="CHANGE FEE/ADD COLLECT DATA                                   "+
                "1.1  COLOR/RED TOMATO                                         "+
                "CF   USD10.00                                                 "+
                "                                                              "+
                "2.2  COLOR/DARK BLUE PLUM                                     "+
                "CF   USD11.00                                                 "+
                "                                                              ";
        String patterString = "([0-9]{1,3}\\.[0-9]{1,3})\\s.+\\s*CF\\s+[a-zA-Z]{1,5}([0-9]{1,10}.[0-9]{2})";
        Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile(patterString);  
        Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(text);    

        while (matcher.find()) {    
            System.out.println("found: " + matcher.group(1) +">>>"+ matcher.group(2));
        }

actual output:

found: 1.1>>>11.00

expected output:

found: 1.1>>>10.00
found: 2.2>>>11.00

@AvinashRaj there are lot of examples in the web using while. here is one tutorials.jenkov.com/java-regex/matcher.html#multiple-groups — Boopathy
– Boopathy, Commented Oct 16, 2015 at 2:26

earcam · Accepted Answer · 2015-10-16 02:30:05Z

Your regex needs to be:

String patterString = "([0-9]{1,3}\\.[0-9]{1,3}).*?CF\\s+[a-zA-Z]{1,5}([0-9]{1,10}.[0-9]{2})";

Which yields:

found: 1.1>>>10.00
found: 2.2>>>11.00

I haven't read the docs, but guess that when iterating with find() it's implicitly in MULTILINE mode, so the portion of your regex \\s.+\\s* is greedy - replacing this with .*? minimizes the greed ;-)

Edit, sample source:

import java.util.regex.Matcher;
import java.util.regex.Pattern;

public class RegexFind {

    public static void main(String[] args)
    {
        String text="CHANGE FEE/ADD COLLECT DATA                                   "+
                "1.1  COLOR/RED TOMATO                                         "+
                "CF   USD10.00                                                 "+
                "                                                              "+
                "2.2  COLOR/DARK BLUE PLUM                                     "+
                "CF   USD11.00                                                 "+
                "                                                              ";
        //String patterString = "([0-9]{1,3}\\.[0-9]{1,3})\\s.+\\s*CF\\s+[a-zA-Z]{1,5}([0-9]{1,10}.[0-9]{2})";
        String patterString = "([0-9]{1,3}\\.[0-9]{1,3}).*?CF\\s+[a-zA-Z]{1,5}([0-9]{1,10}.[0-9]{2})";

        Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile(patterString);
        Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(text);

        while (matcher.find()) {
            System.out.println("found: " + matcher.group(1) +">>>"+ matcher.group(2));
        }
    }
}

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