Regex how to get everything apart from the first character

Question

This is my string

username=john903?fullname=john&smith

This is my regex so far

=([^?]*)

I am trying to capture "john903"

However this currently returns "=john903"

Your question says you're trying to get "john903" and that you're trying to get "=john903". Which are you trying to get? — Bricky, Jul 25 '17 at 20:57
@j_k_g_99904 show us the code you use to capture the match. It should only be a little tweak to get match group #1 instead of the whole matched string — Adrian Shum, Jul 26 '17 at 03:34

Bricky · Accepted Answer · 2017-07-26T02:45:56.450

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Javascript: (Originally the question was tagged with Javascript)

The regex you have currently captures the value you want, but returns an array. The match without the equal sign is in the second element of the array:

var str = "username=john903?fullname=john&smith".match(/=([^?]*)/)[1] 
//str is now "john903"

Java: (OP commented they are in fact using Java)

String line = "username=john903?fullname=john&smith";
Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile("=([^?]*)");
Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(line);
System.out.println(matcher.group(1));

edited Jul 26 '17 at 02:45

answered Jul 25 '17 at 20:56

Bricky

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I am using Java – dark_illusion_909099 Jul 25 '17 at 21:02
Your question is tagged with Javascript. You should delete this and start over. – Bricky Jul 25 '17 at 21:02
Sorry that was a mistake from me – dark_illusion_909099 Jul 25 '17 at 21:03
added java solution @j_k_g_99904 – Bricky Jul 25 '17 at 21:11
Can you tell me how you did that so I can try and find how to go about doing another one that bring back "john&smith" from that string I provided – dark_illusion_909099 Jul 26 '17 at 18:54

score 0 · Answer 2 · edited Jul 25 '17 at 21:36

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You need to utilize positive lookbehind to achieve this. Reference

and here's a fitting regex

(?<==)([^?]*)

edited Jul 25 '17 at 21:36

answered Jul 25 '17 at 20:44

Nick Carter

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Thank you but this doesn't work when I tried it – dark_illusion_909099 Jul 25 '17 at 20:45
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That's because JS regex doesn't support lookbehinds. – Jul 25 '17 at 20:45
@Amy tell me how to do it then since you know this haha – dark_illusion_909099 Jul 25 '17 at 20:47
@jomin_george94 Look at the link I pasted in the comments below the question. – Jul 25 '17 at 20:48
Well I did, if I could understand from it I wouldn't be asking you would I ? – dark_illusion_909099 Jul 25 '17 at 20:50
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... okay then, what part of it didn't you understand? The first answer is very straightforward and is doing *exactly* what you're wanting to do, just with a different regex. – Jul 25 '17 at 20:54
@j_k_g_99904 I think you need to improve your question – Nick Carter Jul 25 '17 at 20:56
You only include the tag 'java' (which was javascript earlier) and don't mention it in the question itself – Nick Carter Jul 25 '17 at 21:17
I edited your answer solely so I could reverse my downvote (because OP tagged the question wrong) – Jul 25 '17 at 21:37

Regex how to get everything apart from the first character

2 Answers2