How to say this regular expression?

Question

I want a java regular expression, that can be used to match this text:

variable(X).

The X can be any string, that only contains characters a-z,A-Z,0-9.

But the rules are, X != tab and X != foo.

Also the X cannot be empty string.

Also X must begin with a a-z character.

So far I have variable\([a-z]([a-zA-Z]|\d)*\), but I don't know how to write the not equals to part...

Have a look at http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1333540/negating-a-set-of-words-via-java-regex — PM 77-1, Apr 07 '13 at 03:55
See: [Regex Tutorial](http://www.vogella.com/articles/JavaRegularExpressions/article.html) — Justin, Apr 07 '13 at 04:07

anubhava · Accepted Answer · 2013-04-07T04:06:14.277

1

This regex should work for you:

^variable\s*\(((?!(?:foo|tab)\))[a-z][a-zA-Z0-9]*)\)

In Java:

^variable\\s*\\(((?!(?:foo|tab)\\))[a-z][a-zA-Z0-9]*)\\)

edited Apr 07 '13 at 04:06

answered Apr 07 '13 at 03:53

anubhava

I changed it to, tab and foo. also, this allows the first character to be capital, which it shouldn't. – omega Apr 07 '13 at 03:55
How are you restricting the characters to be a-z,A-Z,0-9 ? – omega Apr 07 '13 at 03:58
@omega: check the edited answer and new link on rubular. This regex only allows `a-zA-Z0-9` starting from `a-z` – anubhava Apr 07 '13 at 04:01
the new one, doesn't match `variable(fooo)`, but it should. – omega Apr 07 '13 at 04:04
Sorry check new edit now. – anubhava Apr 07 '13 at 04:06
thanks, this seems to work now. – omega Apr 07 '13 at 04:08
You're welcome, glad that it worked out. – anubhava Apr 07 '13 at 04:08

1 Answers1