Java SE RegEx

Special Characters

• Describe the purpose of metacharacters.

• Place backslashes, tabs, line-feeds and carriage-returns into patterns.

• Interpret patterns containing these metacharacters: ^, $, ?, *, +

• Use metacharacters as literal characters in patterns (escaping).

Character Classes

• Explain what a character class is.

• Use appropriate metacharacters to implement negation (^), ranges (-), unions (nested classes), intersections/subtractions (&&).

• Name and use the predefined character classes: ., \d, \D, \s, \S, \w, \W.

(Out of scope: POSIX character classes, java.lang.Character classes, Classes for Unicode blocks and categories)

Boundary Matchers

• Employ these boundary matchers in patterns: \b, \B, \A, \G, \Z, \z.

Quantifiers

• Explain the differences between greedy, reluctant and possessive quantifiers.

• Recognise which parts of a pattern request greedy, reluctant or possessive searches.

Grouping

• Create "sub-patterns" within a pattern using grouping.

• Know how capturing groups are numbered; identify a capturing group by its number.

• Explain the difference between capturing and non-capturing groups.

(Out of scope: back references)