Java String matches()

 class Main { public static void main(String[] args) { // a regex pattern for // four letter string that starts with 'J' and end with 'a' String regex = "^J..a$"; 
 System.out.println("Java".matches(regex)); 
 } } // Output: true

Syntax of matches()

The syntax of the string matches() method is:

 string.matches(String regex)

Here, string is an object of the String class.

matches() Parameters

The matches() method takes a single parameter.

• regex - a regular expression

matches() Return Value

• returns true if the regex matches the string
• returns false if the regex doesn't match the string

Example 1: Java matches()

 class Main { public static void main(String[] args) { // a regex pattern for // five letter string that starts with 'a' and end with 's' String regex = "^a...s$"; System.out.println("abs".matches(regex)); // false 
 System.out.println("alias".matches(regex)); // true System.out.println("an abacus".matches(regex)); // false 
 System.out.println("abyss".matches(regex)); // true } }

Here, "^a...s$" is a regex, which means a 5 letter string that starts with a and ends with s.

Example 2: Check for Numbers

 // check whether a string contains only numbers class Main { public static void main(String[] args) { // a search pattern for only numbers String regex = "^[0-9]+$"; System.out.println("123a".matches(regex)); // false 
 System.out.println("98416".matches(regex)); // true 
 System.out.println("98 41".matches(regex)); // false } }

Here, "^[0-9]+$" is a regex, which means only digits.