[Q#4662215][A#4662265] How to extract a substring using regex

https://stackoverflow.com/q/4662215

I have a string that has two single quotes in it, the ' character. In between the single quotes is the data I want. How can I write a regex to extract "the data i want" from the following text?

Answer

https://stackoverflow.com/a/4662265

Assuming you want the part between single quotes, use this regular expression with a Matcher: Example: Result:

APIzation

"'(.*?)'"
String mydata = "some string with 'the data i want' inside";
Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile("'(.*?)'");
Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(mydata);
if (matcher.find())
{
    System.out.println(matcher.group(1));
}

package com.stackoverflow.api;

import java.util.regex.Matcher;
import java.util.regex.Pattern;

public class Human4662265 {

  public static String extractFromSingleQuotes(String mydata) {
    Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile("'(.*?)'");
    Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(mydata);
    if (matcher.find()) {
      return matcher.group(1);
    }
    return null;
  }
}

package com.stackoverflow.api;

import java.util.regex.Matcher;
import java.util.regex.Pattern;

/**
 * How to extract a substring using regex
 *
 * @author APIzator
 * @see <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/a/4662265">https://stackoverflow.com/a/4662265</a>
 */
public class APIzator4662265 {

  public static void extractSubstring(String mydata) throws Exception {
    Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile("'(.*?)'");
    Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(mydata);
    if (matcher.find()) {
      System.out.println(matcher.group(1));
    }
  }
}