Match two alternative or either both words with regex in Java -
in java need find regex able match sentences :
"john smith wants dog , cat" "john wants fish , snake" "smith wants spider , horse"
the same shall not match if instead of "john" or "smith" or "john smith" there's nothing or different word. example shall not match if sentence like:
"jack wants bird , frog" "wants banana , lemon"
also words in place of animal names shall match capturing groups.
i tried many combination i'm not able find right "formula" because matches if there different words or empty @ beginning. example this:
(john )?(smith )?wants ([a-z]*) , ([a-z]*)
but works if input:
"wants tiger , lion"
by finding "tiger" , "lion" groups, while in case don't want match far there's no (the right) name @ beginning.
hope explanation clear enough..... thanks
you need use or
between fname , lname :
(?:john|smith|john smith) wants ([a-z]*) , ([a-z]*)
Comments
Post a Comment