Is there a special use of left curly brace { regex?

Question

I need to escape a left curly brace but not a right curly brace in my java regex.

My question is what's special about the left curly brace? Is it similar to say a normal bracket ( where the bracket is used for another purpose in regex (ie a group)? If so please share an example of the use case.

Why do I only need to escape left but not right curly brace?

`{` and `}` is used to specify multipliers, EG `{1,3}` means 1 to 3 of the previous token... — Usagi Miyamoto, Sep 16 '17 at 09:31

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 16 '17 at 09:33

1

The syntax of repetition is {min,max}. a{1,3} matches a, aa or aaa. If you don't escape the { it will be interpreted as a start of a repetition group that should be matched with a closing }.

answered Sep 16 '17 at 09:33

Marc Lambrichs

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Is there a special use of left curly brace { regex?

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