regex multiple strings in one string

Question

I have a text file that I iterate over and want to check for multiple substrings in each line (1 substring will exist per line).

my regex is the following

String rE = "(AGG|TIP|IDV|DVY|IYR|LQD|HYG|EMB|ACWI|ACWX|EFA|SCZ|EEM|IWB|IWF|IWD|IWM|IWO|IWN|IWV|IVV|IVW|IVE|IJH|IJK|IJJ|MUB|IJR|IJS|IJT|SPY)"

and a line of my text file looks like this:

SPY,6696832,31080,140.7,400,140.69,140.69,6396960,299872

yet when i do:

BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(url.openStream()));
System.out.println("Starting");
while ((retStr = in.readLine()) != null) {
    if(retStr.matches(tickers)){
         System.out.println(retStr);
    }
}

I do not find my strings.

The code compiles and runs perfectly. I iterate over the file, yet I never find my result.

Could I please have some help on what I am doing wrong?

matches(...) must match the whole String. Consider showing more file lines so we can see other configurations of your text lines that you must analyze. — Hovercraft Full Of Eels
– Hovercraft Full Of Eels, Commented Nov 25, 2012 at 2:44
it says in the documentation that it takes a regex as an argument: docs.oracle.com/javase/1.5.0/docs/api/java/lang/… — jason m
– jason m, Commented Nov 25, 2012 at 2:47
jason: I don't see any posts or comments that disagree with that statement. — Hovercraft Full Of Eels
– Hovercraft Full Of Eels, Commented Nov 25, 2012 at 2:48

arshajii · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-25 02:45:54Z

4

Just add .* to the end of your regex (.* matches anything):

String rE = "(AGG|TIP|IDV|DVY|IYR|LQD|HYG|EMB|ACWI|ACWX|EFA|SCZ|EEM|" +
     "IWB|IWF|IWD|IWM|IWO|IWN|IWV|IVV|IVW|IVE|IJH|IJK|IJJ|MUB|IJR|IJS|IJT|SPY).*"

answered Nov 25, 2012 at 2:45

arshajii

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4 Comments

jason m Over a year ago

so close and yet so far! thanks so much. will accept when i can!!

Hovercraft Full Of Eels Over a year ago

@jasonm: he guessed correctly that all your lines of text began with the String your seek. Next time please don't make us guess and show more lines of the text file.

jason m Over a year ago

regardless its obvious.. "*.(FOO|BAR).*"

Alan Moore Over a year ago

@jasonm, Did he guess correctly? Does the match always occur at the beginning of the line? If so, you should not add .* to the front of the regex. (I'm assuming that's what you meant to say in your comment; *.(FOO|BAR).* won't even compile.)

akuhn · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-25 03:00:52Z

1

For better performance you should compile the regular expression. The matches method on String recompiles the expression each time, it is not meant to be used inside a loop.

Here's an example

import static org.junit.Assert.assertEquals;
import java.util.regex.Pattern;
import org.junit.Test;

public class Example {

    @Test
    public void shouldMatchString() {
        Pattern p = Pattern.compile("^(AAA|BBB|CCC)");
        assertEquals(true, p.matcher("AAA,1,2,3,4,5").find());
        assertEquals(false, p.matcher("    AAA").find());
    }

}

Find does not match against the whole string, so I'm using ^ to match the begin of the input.

answered Nov 25, 2012 at 3:00

akuhn

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