Regular expression for multiple words with * and space

Question

My regular expression is of format "Exit* Order*". When i use in java its not working as expected.

String pattern = "Exit* Order*";
String ipLine = "Exiting orders";

Match: NO

String pattern = "Exit Order";
String ipLine = "Exit order";

Match: Yes.

Java Code: Pattern patrn = Pattern.compile(pattern,Pattern.CASE_INSENSITIVE); Matcher match = patrn.matcher(ipLine);

Can any one let me know what should be the pattern in such cases.

Answer 1

I believe you are looking for something like:

"Exit.* Order.*"

or maybe something instead of .* , eg \\S* , \\w* , [A-Za-z]* .

Your current regular expression is looking for zero or more t and r on the ends of the words, eg it would match

Exi Orde
Exit Orde
Exitt Orde
Exi Order
Exi Orderr
...

Answer 2

Exit\\w* Order\\w*

You should use this. .* can match much more than intended.use i or ignorecase flag

Answer 3

It seems like you just want to match "Exit Order" case-insensitively:

Try this:

if (str.matches("(?i)exit order"))

Or to restrict the match to just your examples, where the "O" of "Order may be "o", use:

if (str.matches("Exit [Oo]rder"))

Answer 4

Java does not use Linux regexp expression: http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/util/regex/Pattern.html

Use this:

String pattern = "Exit.* Order.*";