java string matching with regex

Question

I have a specific key i need to match. The key is 10 set's of 4 separated by a dash. The combination can be a combination of letters or numbers.

Example.

aa11-bb22-cc33-44dd-55ee-66ff-gg77-hh88-99ii-jj10

I just want to validate the pattern being 10 sets of 4 separated by a dash.

Probably match this via regex, but I don't know how.

Any help would be appreciated.

The regex for this should not be difficult. Have you taken a look at the tutorials? — M A
– M A, Commented Nov 12, 2014 at 20:06

vks · Accepted Answer · 2014-11-12 20:07:18Z

5

^[a-zA-Z0-9]{4}(?:-[a-zA-Z0-9]{4}){9}$

Try this.See demo.

http://regex101.com/r/kP8uF5/11

answered Nov 12, 2014 at 20:07

vks

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1 Comment

Jigish Over a year ago

nice link ... didn't know something like that existed for regex testing.

nhahtdh · Accepted Answer · 2014-11-13 03:06:08Z

2

([a-zA-Z0-9]{4}-){9}[a-zA-Z0-9]{4}

Here's the regex in action: http://regex101.com/r/xR1wV3/1

Explanation:

[a-zA-Z0-9] --> any character from a to z, A to Z and 0 to 9
[a-zA-Z0-9]{4} --> {4} indicates exactly 4. So [a-zA-Z0-9]{4} means exactly 4 characters
[a-zA-Z0-9]{4}- --> add a dash (-) at the end to match for dash separators. This should match with aa11- for example
([a-zA-Z0-9]{4}-) --> put #3 into parenthesis
([a-zA-Z0-9]{4}-){9} --> add {9} to the parenthesis to specify that this pattern repeat 9 times
([a-zA-Z0-9]{4}-)[a-zA-Z0-9]{4} --> add a [a-zA-Z0-9]{4} at the end to match the last set of 4 characters (same as #2 above)

edited Nov 13, 2014 at 3:06

nhahtdh

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answered Nov 12, 2014 at 20:18

Jigish

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2 Comments

Jigish Over a year ago

Using the tool that @vks posted: Here's my regex - either one works: regex101.com/r/xR1wV3/1

Jigish Over a year ago

I had added it as a separate comment but added it to the answer as well. Thanks.

Bohemian · Accepted Answer · 2014-11-12 20:35:52Z

0

You could do it like this:

(?!.*_)(\w{4}-){9}\w{4}

This makes use of the fact that \w means "any letter, number or underscore" and the negative look ahead prevents the underscore.

answered Nov 12, 2014 at 20:35

Bohemian♦

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Bohemian Over a year ago

@nhahtdh yes, I know that, but if you read my answer, you'll see that is not a problem because i use a negative look ahead to assert there are no underscores anywhere in the input. I used \w with the NLA to make the regex shorter over all.

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