Java URL regex not matching

Question

I am trying to count the number of URLs in a Java string:

String test = "This http://example.com is a sentence https://secure.whatever.org that contains 2 URLs.";
String urlRegex = "<\\b(https?|ftp|file)://[-a-zA-Z0-9+&@#/%?=~_|!:,.;]*[-a-zA-Z0-9+&@#/%=~_|]>";
int numUrls = 0;
pattern = Pattern.compile(urlRegex);
matcher = pattern.matcher(test);
while(matcher.find())
    numUrls++;
System.err.println("numUrls = " + numUrls);

When I run this it tells me I have zero (not 2) URLs in the string. Any ideas as to why? Thanks in advance!

what are the < and > doing. looks like duplicated delimnators — user1937198
– user1937198, Commented Mar 19, 2013 at 18:57
I am just curious, why you ask questions from different accounts Mike: stackoverflow.com/q/15507679/1393766? Afraid of duplicate close? :) — Pshemo
– Pshemo, Commented Mar 19, 2013 at 19:06
@Pshemo - DirtyMike is my twin brother. We're working on a project together and only have access to 1 PC with internet access. He asks his questions as DirtyMike, I ask my questions as TicketMonster. :-) — user1768830
– user1768830, Commented Mar 19, 2013 at 19:51

Reimeus · Accepted Answer · 2013-03-19 19:04:36Z

5

The < and > characters in urlRegex are causing a mismatch between your pattern and your input test String. Removing them will yield a numUrls value of 2 as intended.

edited Mar 19, 2013 at 19:04

answered Mar 19, 2013 at 18:58

Reimeus

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Ankur Shanbhag · Accepted Answer · 2013-03-19 19:20:59Z

0

Try this code :

        String data = "This http://example.com is a sentence https://secure.whatever.org that contains 2 URLs.";

    Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile("[hH][tT]{2}[Pp][sS]?://(\\w+(\\.\\w+?)?)+");
    Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(data);

    while (matcher.find()) {
        System.out.println(matcher.group());
    }

Hopefully it will work.

answered Mar 19, 2013 at 19:20

Ankur Shanbhag

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2 Comments

Pshemo Over a year ago

If you want to make regex case insensitive then just compile it as Pattern.compile("some pattern",Pattern.CASE_INSENSITIVE), or add (?i) at start of regex: Pattern.compile("(?i)some pattern").

Ankur Shanbhag Over a year ago

@Pshemo : Thanks for the information. I had used Pattern.CASE_INSENSITIVE earlier but did not know about (?i). Thanks once again. :-)

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