I want to create a regular expression, in Java, that will match the following:
*A*B
where A and B are ANY character except asterisk, and there can be any number of A characters and B characters. A(s) is/are preceded by asterisk, and B(s) is/are preceded by asterisk.
Will the following work? Seems to work when I run it, but I want to be absolutely sure.
Pattern.matches("\\A\\*([^\\*]{1,})\\*([^\\*]{1,})\\Z", someString)
It will work, however you can rewrite it as this (unquoted):
\A\*([^*]+)\*([^*]+)\Z
{1,} and + are the same quantifier (once or more).Note 1: you use .matches() which automatically anchors the regex at the beginning and end; you may therefore do without \A and \Z.
Note 2: I have retained the capturing groups -- do you actually need them?
Note 3: it is unclear whether you want the same character repeated between the stars; the example above assumes not. If you want the same, then use this:
\A\*(([^*])\2*)\*(([^*])\4*)\Z
*A_$-123*B<>+-321.If I got it correct.. it can be as simple as
^\\*((?!\\*).)+\\*((?!\\*).)+
If you want a match on *AAA*BBB but not on *ABC*DEF use
^\*([a-zA-Z])\1*\*([a-zA-Z])\2*$
This won't match on this either
*A_$-123*B<>+-321
*ABC*DEFor*A_$-123*B<>+-321. Have a look at my answer please.