Regex pattern accepting comma separated values

Question

I need a regex pattern that accepts only comma separated values for an input field.

For example: abc,xyz,pqr. It should reject values like: , ,sample text1,text2,

I also need to accept semicolon separated values also. Can anyone suggest a regex pattern for this ?

At the time of writing both answers (from acdcjunior and sk9) given here are equivalent. Take your pick! — Ken, Jun 26 '13 at 04:09

acdcjunior · Accepted Answer · 2013-06-26T04:19:43.423

9

Simplest form:

^\w+(,\w+)*$

Demo here.

I need to restrict only alphabets. How can I do that ?

Use the regex (example unicode chars range included):

^[\u0400-\u04FFa-zA-Z ]+(,[\u0400-\u04FFa-zA-Z ]+)*$

Demo for this one here.

Example usage:

public static void main (String[] args) throws java.lang.Exception
{
    String regex = "^[\u0400-\u04FFa-zA-Z ]+(,[\u0400-\u04FFa-zA-Z ]+)*$";

    System.out.println("abc,xyz,pqr".matches(regex)); // true
    System.out.println("text1,text2,".matches(regex)); // false
    System.out.println("ЕЖЗ,ИЙК".matches(regex)); // true
}

Java demo.

edited Jun 26 '13 at 04:19

answered Jun 26 '13 at 04:05

acdcjunior

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i need to restrict only alphabets. How can I do that ? – Krishnanunni P V Jun 26 '13 at 04:11
What do you mean by alphabets? A to Z only? – acdcjunior Jun 26 '13 at 04:12
You can do that with `[A-Za-z]` – Java Devil Jun 26 '13 at 04:13
I need to change my regex pattern ^[\u0400-\u04FFa-zA-Z ]*$ to the above requirement. – Krishnanunni P V Jun 26 '13 at 04:15
@KrishnanunniPV Changed. see it now. – acdcjunior Jun 26 '13 at 04:15
@acdcjunior one more question. If i need to allow semicolon also, how can i change this ? – Krishnanunni P V Jun 27 '13 at 06:20
@KrishnanunniPV Allow semicolon among the characters? Try this one: `^[\u0400-\u04FFa-zA-Z ;]+(,[\u0400-\u04FFa-zA-Z ;]+)*$`. Let me know if this is what you need. – acdcjunior Jun 27 '13 at 12:43
See demo for this last one here: http://ideone.com/FlfOxl Notice it will match that unicode range, `A-Z` chars, `;` and space! – acdcjunior Jun 27 '13 at 12:47
@acdcjunior i want to accept comma or semicolon separated values. – Krishnanunni P V Jun 27 '13 at 13:32

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 26 '13 at 04:07

2

Try:

^\w+((,\w+)+)?$

There are online regexp testers you can practice with. For example, http://regexpal.com/.

answered Jun 26 '13 at 04:07

Ken

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score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 26 '13 at 04:10

1

Try the next:

^[^,]+(,[^,]+)*$

You can have spaces between words and Unicode text, like:

word1 word2,áéíóú áéíúó,ñ,word3

answered Jun 26 '13 at 04:10

Paul Vargas

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Note to OP: This allows white space. Up to you. – Ken Jun 26 '13 at 04:12
Sometimes, it is [just what people need](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/50267091). – Wiktor Stribiżew May 10 '18 at 06:52

Bohemian · Answer 4 · 2013-06-26T04:15:56.360

1

The simplest regex that works is:

^\w+(,\w+)*$

And here it is as a method:

public static boolean isCsv(String csv) {
    return csv.matches("\\w+(,\\w+)*");
}

Note that String.matches() doesn't need the start or end regex (^ and $); they are implied with this method, because the entire input must be matched to return true.

edited Jun 26 '13 at 04:15

answered Jun 26 '13 at 04:10

Bohemian

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score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Jun 26 '13 at 04:15

0

I think you want this, based on your comment only wanting alphabets (I assume you mean letters)

^[A-Za-z]+(,[A-Za-z]+)*$

answered Jun 26 '13 at 04:15

Java Devil

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Regex pattern accepting comma separated values

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