Interface PatternCompiler

All Known Implementing Classes:
AwkCompiler, GlobCompiler, Perl5Compiler
public interface PatternCompiler
The PatternCompiler interface defines the operations a regular expression compiler must implement. However, the types of regular expressions recognized by a compiler and the Pattern implementations produced as a result of compilation are not restricted.

A PatternCompiler instance is used to compile the string representation (either as a String or char[]) of a regular expression into a Pattern instance. The Pattern can then be used in conjunction with the appropriate PatternMatcher instance to perform pattern searches. A form of use might be: 

PatternCompiler compiler;
PatternMatcher matcher;
Pattern pattern;
String input;

// Initialization of compiler, matcher, and input omitted;

try {
  pattern = compiler.compile("\\d+");
} catch(MalformedPatternException e) {
  System.out.println("Bad pattern.");
  System.out.println(e.getMessage());
  System.exit(1);
}


if(matcher.matches(input, pattern))
   System.out.println(input + " is a number");
else
   System.out.println(input + " is not a number");

Specific PatternCompiler implementations such as Perl5Compiler may have variations of the compile() methods that take extra options affecting the compilation of a pattern. However, the PatternCompiler method implementations should provide the default behavior of the class.

Since:
1.0
Version:
2.0.8
See Also:

  • Method Summary

    Modifier and Type
    Method
    Description
    Pattern
    compile(char[] pattern)
    Compiles a regular expression into a data structure that can be used by a PatternMatcher implementation to perform pattern matching.
    Pattern
    compile(char[] pattern, int options)
    Compiles a regular expression into a data structure that can be used by a PatternMatcher implementation to perform pattern matching.
    Pattern
    compile(String pattern)
    Compiles a regular expression into a data structure that can be used by a PatternMatcher implementation to perform pattern matching.
    Pattern
    compile(String pattern, int options)
    Compiles a regular expression into a data structure that can be used by a PatternMatcher implementation to perform pattern matching.

  • Method Details

    • compile

      Pattern compile(String pattern) throws MalformedPatternException
      Compiles a regular expression into a data structure that can be used by a PatternMatcher implementation to perform pattern matching.

      Parameters:
      pattern - A regular expression to compile.
      Returns:
      A Pattern instance constituting the compiled regular expression.
      Throws:
      MalformedPatternException - If the compiled expression does not conform to the grammar understood by the PatternCompiler or if some other error in the expression is encountered.

    • compile

      Pattern compile(String pattern, int options) throws MalformedPatternException
      Compiles a regular expression into a data structure that can be used by a PatternMatcher implementation to perform pattern matching. Additional regular expression syntax specific options can be passed as a bitmask of options.

      Parameters:
      pattern - A regular expression to compile.
      options - A set of flags giving the compiler instructions on how to treat the regular expression. The flags are a logical OR of any number of the allowable constants permitted by the PatternCompiler implementation.
      Returns:
      A Pattern instance constituting the compiled regular expression.
      Throws:
      MalformedPatternException - If the compiled expression does not conform to the grammar understood by the PatternCompiler or if some other error in the expression is encountered.

    • compile

      Pattern compile(char[] pattern) throws MalformedPatternException
      Compiles a regular expression into a data structure that can be used by a PatternMatcher implementation to perform pattern matching.

      Parameters:
      pattern - A regular expression to compile.
      Returns:
      A Pattern instance constituting the compiled regular expression.
      Throws:
      MalformedPatternException - If the compiled expression does not conform to the grammar understood by the PatternCompiler or if some other error in the expression is encountered.

    • compile

      Pattern compile(char[] pattern, int options) throws MalformedPatternException
      Compiles a regular expression into a data structure that can be used by a PatternMatcher implementation to perform pattern matching. Additional regular expression syntax specific options can be passed as a bitmask of options.

      Parameters:
      pattern - A regular expression to compile.
      options - A set of flags giving the compiler instructions on how to treat the regular expression. The flags are a logical OR of any number of the allowable constants permitted by the PatternCompiler implementation.
      Returns:
      A Pattern instance constituting the compiled regular expression.
      Throws:
      MalformedPatternException - If the compiled expression does not conform to the grammar understood by the PatternCompiler or if some other error in the expression is encountered.