java regular expression - match all strings except few strings

Question

I have these strings in an array and I want to iterate this array and find those who match (one line per match check).
The thing is, I can't find the right regex.

Bird
Cat
Dog
Fish
CatDog
DogCat

Currently, with RegexBuddy (damn nice software!!), I have this regex:

(?!Cat\b)\b\w+

I want to add the "Dog" to it so in one regex match try I'll get a match result, you know, like an OR operator.
I want it to check if "Cat" or "Dog" or "Fish" is there in one go.

Any idea?

Is this your actual problem or a simplified version of it? In the case where you're looking for literal strings and not obscure representations that can take on variable froms you're better off using methods like .contains(), .equals() or the like on a collection — Grambot
– Grambot, Commented Jul 26, 2011 at 16:36
@TheCapn - contains() and equals() will probably result in more readable code but I would expect regex to be more efficient for this. — Andrew Clark
– Andrew Clark, Commented Jul 26, 2011 at 16:40

Andrew Clark · Accepted Answer · 2011-07-26 16:34:54Z

7

Try the following:

\b(?!(?:Bird|Cat|Dog|Fish|CatDog|DogCat)\b)\w+

The | character is an OR operator in regex.

answered Jul 26, 2011 at 16:34

Andrew Clark

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