Java regex: match character based on previous character

Question

How to match a closing quote (single or double) depending on opening quote used?

For now I have:

key.*?=["'].*?["']

But unfortunately the closing quote is not dependent on the opening one and it won't work for the following example:

key="foo'bar"

I could created 2 sub but I assume that it isn't optimal:

key.*?=(".*?"|'.*?')

Any hint would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

Have you tried capturing the first quote in a group and using a back-reference at the end? — Biffen
– Biffen, Commented May 15, 2016 at 8:26

Krzysztof Krasoń · Accepted Answer · 2016-05-15 08:26:43Z

1

You can use back reference \n (e.g. \1 - for the first capturing group, \2 for the second)

So your example would look like:

key.*?=(["']).*?\1

answered May 15, 2016 at 8:26

Krzysztof Krasoń

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