I am trying to use regular expression to validate a string.
RegEx: "Coord=\\(.*\\);?" Issue: I am not able to find reg ex for following inputs and expected output
1. Input: Coord=(1,1) -- Expected output: True 2. Input: Coord=(1,1); -- Expected output: True 3. Input: Coord=(1,1): -- Expected output: False 4. Input: Coord=(1,1)abc -- Expected output: False 5. Input: Coord=(1,1);abc -- Expected output: True Any thoughts
You can alternate ";" with the end of the input to reach your goal:
String[] inputs = { "Coord=(1,1)",// -- Expected output: True "Coord=(1,1);",// -- Expected output: True "Coord=(1,1):",// -- Expected output: False "Coord=(1,1)abc",// -- Expected output: False "Coord=(1,1);abc"// -- Expected output: True }; // | this is the important bit Pattern p = Pattern.compile("Coord=\\(\\d,\\d\\)(;|$)"); for (String input: inputs) { Matcher m = p.matcher(input); System.out.printf("%s found? %b%n", input, m.find()); } Output
Coord=(1,1) found? true Coord=(1,1); found? true Coord=(1,1): found? false Coord=(1,1)abc found? false Coord=(1,1);abc found? true 
String is because I use find, not matches. Obviously I don't want to be using matches in this context.
;; is present or not. If so, whichever character follows is irrelevant. If not, the input must end. My interpretation might be wrong though.