Java .matches()

The .matches() method checks whether a string matches a given regular expression, returning true or false.

Syntax

string.matches(regex)

• The .matches() method returns a boolean value.
  • The parameter regex is a given regular expression that the string is compared to.
  • This method only returns true for complete matches, it will not return ‘true’ for a subset of characters.

Example

The .matches() method is showcased in the following example:

\\ Example.java

class Example {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    // a regex that matches 'hello' or 'goodbye'
    String regex = "Hello|Goodbye";

    System.out.println("Hello World".matches(regex));
    System.out.println("Goodbye".matches(regex));
    System.out.println("Hello, Goodbye".matches(regex));
    System.out.println("Hello".matches(regex));
  }
}

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This example results in the following output:

false
true
false
true

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