How can I keep a while loop going if the string contains a letter

Question

while (firstName.//includes a,b,c,d,e,f,g.etc)
{
  //other code here
}

I want the while loop to keep going if it includes a letter, please help.

Answer 1

Use .*?[\\\\p{L}].* as the regex.

If you are sure that your text is purely in English, you can use .*?[A-Za-z].* or .*?[\\\\p{Alpha}].* alternatively.

Explanation:

1. .*? looks reluctantly for any character until it yields to another pattern (eg [\\\\p{L}] in this case).
2. [\\\\p{L}] looks for a single letter because of [] around \\\\p{L} where \\\\p{L} specifies any letter (including unicode) .
3. .* looks for any character.

Demo:

public class Main {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        String[] arr = { "123a", "a123", "abc", "123", "123a456", "123ß456" };
        for (String firstName : arr) {
            if (firstName.matches(".*?[\\p{L}].*")) {
                System.out.println(firstName + " meets the criteria.");
            }
        }
    }
}

Output:

123a meets the criteria.
a123 meets the criteria.
abc meets the criteria.
123a456 meets the criteria.
123ß456 meets the criteria.

Note that if .*?[A-Za-z].* is used, 123ß456 won't meet the criteria because ß is not part of English alphabets.

Answer 2

尝试firstName.matches(matches(".*[A-Za-z].*"));