Pattern problem, It includes the text outside (.*?)

Question

I need to get the link out of a bunch of HTML and im using patterns for that. The problem is that the pattern includes the text before and after (.*?). Should it do that? I thought it only includes the text between boundaries.

Ive modified the code a little bit and now it only includes the quote.

Pattern p = Pattern.compile("http://cdn.posh24.se/images/:profile(.*?)");
Matcher m = p.matcher(splitStrings[0]);;

[http://cdn.posh24.se/images/:profile/088484075fb5b4418f5cb8814728decab",... that is the output, this is the expected: [http://cdn.posh24.se/images/:profile/088484075fb5b4418f5cb8814728decab

I think you pasted wrong links. The output and the expected output are the same I guess. — Saeed Entezari, Aug 21 '19 at 13:24

Saeed Entezari · Accepted Answer · 2019-08-23T13:26:05.243

2

You can do something like this:

Pattern p = Pattern.compile("http://cdn.posh24.se/images/:profile(.*?)(?=\")");

This sequence is called Positive Look Ahead. You can find a good explanation here.

edited Aug 23 '19 at 13:26

answered Aug 21 '19 at 13:33

Saeed Entezari

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Thanks, it worked! May I get some explanation of that sequence of characters? – GameDev Cro Aug 21 '19 at 13:38
@GameDevCro I added a link. Sorry for the delay. – Saeed Entezari Aug 23 '19 at 13:26

score 0 · Answer 2 · edited Aug 21 '19 at 16:18

0

Pattern p =  Pattern.compile("http://cdn.posh24.se/images/:profile([^\"]*)");
Matcher m = p.matcher(splitStrings[0]);

while (m.find()) {
    System.out.println(m.group(0));
}

edited Aug 21 '19 at 16:18

Jason Aller

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answered Aug 21 '19 at 13:43

Marc G. Smith

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Pattern problem, It includes the text outside (.*?)

2 Answers2