Regex inverse matching on specific string?

Question

I would like to match the following

com.my.company.moduleA.MyClassName
com.my.company.moduleB.MyClassName
com.my.company.anythingElse.MyClassName

but not the following

com.my.company.core.MyClassName

My current simple regex pattern is :

Pattern PATTERN_MODULE_NAME = Pattern.compile("com\\.my\\.company\\.(.*?)\\..*")

Matcher matcher = PATTERN_MODULE_NAME.matcher(className);
if (matcher.matches()) {
    // will return the string inside the parentheses (.*?)
    return matcher.group(1);
}

So, basically, how can i match everything else, but not a specific string, which is the string core in my case.

Please share your ideas on how to achieve that in Java ?

Thank you !

codaddict · Accepted Answer · 2011-06-08T03:36:05.757

6

You can use the following regex:

^com\\.my\\.company\\.(?!core).+?\\.MyClassName$

edited Jun 08 '11 at 03:36

answered Jun 07 '11 at 10:33

codaddict

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+1, but it looks like you've got an extra dot right before that last pair of backslashes. – Alan Moore Jun 07 '11 at 19:04
codaddict: Thanks ! That's exactly what i was looking for. – Bertie Jun 08 '11 at 09:23

score 5 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 07 '11 at 10:33

5

Perhaps a regex is not the clearest way to write this.

if (className.startsWith("com.my.company.") 
    && !className.startsWith("com.my.company.core.")) {

}

This is fair clear what it does, and you might find it is faster. ;)

answered Jun 07 '11 at 10:33

Peter Lawrey

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Thanks, it's simple and clean. :-) – Bertie Jun 08 '11 at 09:18
Regex are cool but can become a cryptic string of symbols which can make it hard for someone reading it later to determine exactly what it does or how to change it. – Peter Lawrey Jun 08 '11 at 09:41

Regex inverse matching on specific string?

2 Answers2

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