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How to use Java RegEx to match a specific string/Start of a line

The meta-character "^" matches the beginning of a specific string, that is, it matches the first character of the string. For example,

  • expression " ^ \\ d " with strings that start with a number"/line match.

  • expression " ^ [az] "Match strings that start with a lowercase letter"/line.

Example1

import java.util.Scanner;
import java.util.regex.Matcher;
import java.util.regex.Pattern;
public class Example {
   public static void main(String args[]) {
      //read a string from the user
      System.out.println("Enter a String");
      Scanner sc = new Scanner(System.in);
      String input = sc.nextLine();
      String regex = "^[^a-zA-Z0-9//s].*";
      //compile the regular expression
      Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile(regex);
      //retrieve the matcher object
      Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(input);
      if(matcher.matches()) {
         System.out.println("Match occurred");
      } else { 
         System.out.println("Match not occurred");
      }
   }
}

Output Result

Enter a String
# starting with a special character
Match occurred

Example2

import java.util.Scanner;
import java.util.regex.Matcher;
import java.util.regex.Pattern;
public class RegexExample {
   public static void main( String args[] ) {
      String regex = \
      Scanner sc = new Scanner(System.in);
      System.out.println("Enter 5 input strings: ");
      String input[] = new String[5];
      for (int i=0; i<5; i++) {
         input[i] = sc.nextLine();
      }
      //Create a Pattern object
      Pattern p = Pattern.compile(regex);
      for(int i=0; i<5;i++) {
         //Create a Matcher object
         Matcher m = p.matcher(input[i]);
         if(m.find()) {
            System.out.println("String ")+i+" ends with '.' ");
         }
      }
   }
}

Output Result

Enter 5 input strings:
hello, how are you?
where do you live?
what is your name?
welcome to w3codebox
The biggest online tutorials library.
String 0 ends with '.'
String 2 ends with '.'
String 4 ends with '.'

Example3

import java.util.Scanner;
import java.util.regex.Matcher;
import java.util.regex.Pattern;
public class RegexExample {
   public static void main( String args[] ) {
      String regex = "^[A-Z]";
      Scanner sc = new Scanner(System.in);
      System.out.println("Enter 5 input strings: ");
      String input[] = new String[5];
      for (int i=0; i<5; i++) {
         input[i] = sc.nextLine();
      }
      //Create a Pattern object
      Pattern p = Pattern.compile(regex);
      for(int i=0; i<5;i++) {
         //Create a Matcher object
         Matcher m = p.matcher(input[i]);
         if(m.find()) {
            System.out.println("String ")+i+" starts with a capital letter ");
         }
      }
   }
}

Output Result

Enter 5 input strings:
Sample text1
sample text2
hello how are you
Welcome to w3codebox
Good morning
String 0 starts with a capital letter
String 3 starts with a capital letter
String 4 starts with a capital letter