Extract substring that appears after certain pattern

Question

I need to extract a substring that appears after a certain pattern in the input string. I have been trying various combinations but not getting expected output. The input string can be in following 2 forms

1. 88,TRN:2014091900217161 SNDR REF:149IF1007JMO2507 BISCAYNE BLVD STE
2. 88,TRN:2014091900217161 SNDR REF:149IF1007JMO2507

I need to write a regex that will be applicable to above 2 variations and extract '149IF1007JMO2507' part that follows 'SNDR REF:'. Please find below sample program that i have written.

import java.util.regex.Matcher;
import java.util.regex.Pattern;
public class RegexTester {
        private static final String input = "88,TRN:2014091900217161 SNDR REF:149IF1007JMO2507 BISCAYNE BLVD STE";
        private static Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile(".*SNDR REF:(.*?)(\\s.)*");
        private static Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(input);
        public static void main (String[] args) {
                if (matcher.matches()) {
                        System.out.println(matcher.group(1));
                }
        }
}

Output:149IF1007JMO2507 BISCAYNE BLVD STE

I want output to be '149IF1007JMO2507'

Thank you.

If it doesn't have to be regex i would use : private static String returnRef( String str ){ return str.substring( str.indexOf( "REF" ) + 4, str.indexOf( "REF" ) + 20 ); } — Sercan Ozdemir
– Sercan Ozdemir, Commented Apr 3, 2015 at 12:30

Mena · Accepted Answer · 2015-04-03 12:39:24Z

1

You can use the following idiom to find your sub-string:

String[] examples = {
    "88,TRN:2014091900217161 SNDR REF:149IF1007JMO2507 BISCAYNE BLVD STE",
    "88,TRN:2014091900217161 SNDR REF:149IF1007JMO2507"      
};
//                           ┌ look-behind for "SNDR REF:"
//                           |               ┌ anything, reluctantly quantified
//                           |               |   ┌ lookahead for 
//                           |               |   | whitespace or end of input
Pattern p = Pattern.compile("(?<=SNDR\\sREF:).+?(?=\\s|$)");
// iterating examples
for (String s: examples) {
    Matcher m = p.matcher(s);
    // iterating single matches (one per example here)
    while (m.find()) {
        System.out.printf("Found: %s%n", m.group());
    }
}

Output

Found: 149IF1007JMO2507
Found: 149IF1007JMO2507

Note

I expect you don't know in advance it's going to be "149IF1007JMO2507", hence the contextual matching.

edited Apr 3, 2015 at 12:39

answered Apr 3, 2015 at 12:29

Mena

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1 Comment

ivish Over a year ago

Thanks a lot Mena. That's the output i wanted.

Florent Bayle · Accepted Answer · 2015-04-03 12:35:49Z

1

You can use this regexp:

private static Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile(".*SNDR REF:([^\\s]+).*");

This will take everything after "SNDR REF

answered Apr 3, 2015 at 12:35

Florent Bayle

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Comments

Evgeniy Dorofeev · Accepted Answer · 2015-04-03 12:44:43Z

1

You can do it with replaceAll

    str = str.replaceAll(".*(REF:(\\S+)).*", "$2");

answered Apr 3, 2015 at 12:44

Evgeniy Dorofeev

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