Regex will quite if the first character does not match the pattern, even if there should be a match later

Question

I am using regex in java, and I cannot create a regex to match what I want it to. I want to match everything in a string that begins and ends with a character.

"cats-are-cute" should match and return cats-are-cute

!!!DOG-CAT!!! should match and return DOG-CAT

I am using https://regexr.com/ to test, and it says my regex should work

I'm not even sure how I should attempt to fix this. I've found out that it will quite if the very first character does not match (e.i it is a special character) but it will match if the entire string begins + ends with a matching character.

It will not match if a special character begins or ends the entire string

Here is my code:

    Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile("([A-Za-z0-9].*[A-Za-z0-9])");
    Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(word);
    if(matcher.matches())
    {
        System.out.println("Matches");
        System.out.println(matcher.start());
        System.out.println(matcher.end());
    }

if I type testing it returns

Matches
0
7

Small question: why is it 7 and not 6?

just like it should but if I do "testing" matcher.matches() is false. I think it should output

Matches
1
7

but sadly it does not as matcher.matches() returns false. I think my regex is working, because quite a few sites have said that my regex will match what I want it to. Am I missing something with Matcher matches()? Does it not do what I think it does?

Answer 1

I just needed to use find instead of matches, as OH GOD SPIDERS suggested in this comment:

As the documentation of Matcher.matches states it Attempts to match the entire region against the pattern.. You need to use Matcher.find if you don't want your entire String to be matched.