Java Regex: Cannot match angular brackets

Question

As the title says I cannot match the "<" character in Java 8 regular expressions.

The following expressions all evaluate to false:

"<hello>".matches("<")

"<hello>".matches(Pattern.quote("<"))

"<hello>".matches("\\<")

"<hello>".matches(Pattern.quote("\\<"))

How can I escape angular brackets in regular expressions in Java 8?

Try "".matches("<.*"). You might want to read about the difference between "matches" and "find" — lance-java, Apr 10 '15 at 12:02

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 10 '15 at 12:02

1

"<hello>".matches("<.*");// => true

You need to match wathever comes after => use .*

answered Apr 10 '15 at 12:02

pdem

Thank you! I forgot you need to match the whole string not just part of it. – xgb84j Apr 10 '15 at 12:04

1 Answers1