This is an example of how to match an address using regular expressions. We have created a method boolean isValidAddr(String addr) and used it to match some addresses to a specified pattern. The method is described below:
- The method reads a String address and returns true if a specified pattern matches the address and false otherwise.
- It has a a String
nameToken, that is a regular expression consisting of an uppercase character followed by a capturing group of a lowercase character and a non-whitespace character once or not at all. - The
namePatternis also a String regular expression consisting of thenameTokenat least 2 but no more that 3 times. - The
zipCodePatternis also a String regular expression consisting of a digit appearing exactly 5 times and a capturing group that consists of the – followed by a digit exactly 4 times. - The
addressPatternthat is the full regular expression to match the input address consists of the ^ to match the beginning of a line, then thenamePattern, then a word character one or more times, any character as many times, again a word character one or more times, thezipCodePatternand then the $ to match a line ending. - The input String is matched to the constructed regular expression, using
matches(String regex)API method of String and the result is returned.
Let’s take a look at the code snippet that follows:
package com.javacodegeeks.snippets.core;
public class MatchAddress {
public static void main(String args[]) {
isValidAddr("John Smith 888 Luck Street,NY 64332");
isValidAddr("John A. Smith 888 Luck Street, NY 64332-4453");
isValidAddr("John Allen Smith 888 Luck Street, NY 64332-4453");
isValidAddr("888 Luck Street, NY 64332");
isValidAddr("P.O. BOX 888 Luck Street, NY 64332-4453");
isValidAddr("John Allen Smith 888 Luck st., NY");
}
public static boolean isValidAddr(String addr) {
boolean retval = false;
String nameToken = "\p{Upper}(\p{Lower}+\s?)";
String namePattern = "(" + nameToken + "){2,3}";
String zipCodePattern = "\d{5}(-\d{4})?";
String addressPattern = "^" + namePattern + "\w+ .*, \w+ "
+ zipCodePattern + "$";
retval = addr.matches(addressPattern);
String msg = "NO MATCHnpattern:n " + addr + "nregexLength:n "
+ addressPattern;
if (retval) {
msg = "MATCHnpattern:n " + addr + "nregexLength:n "
+ addressPattern;
}
System.out.println(msg + "rn");
return retval;
}
}
Output:
NO MATCH
pattern:
John Smith 888 Luck Street,NY 64332
regexLength:
^(p{Upper}(p{Lower}+s?)){2,3}w+ .*, w+ d{5}(-d{4})?$
NO MATCH
pattern:
John A. Smith 888 Luck Street, NY 64332-4453
regexLength:
^(p{Upper}(p{Lower}+s?)){2,3}w+ .*, w+ d{5}(-d{4})?$
MATCH
pattern:
John Allen Smith 888 Luck Street, NY 64332-4453
regexLength:
^(p{Upper}(p{Lower}+s?)){2,3}w+ .*, w+ d{5}(-d{4})?$
NO MATCH
pattern:
888 Luck Street, NY 64332
regexLength:
^(p{Upper}(p{Lower}+s?)){2,3}w+ .*, w+ d{5}(-d{4})?$
NO MATCH
pattern:
P.O. BOX 888 Luck Street, NY 64332-4453
regexLength:
^(p{Upper}(p{Lower}+s?)){2,3}w+ .*, w+ d{5}(-d{4})?$
NO MATCH
pattern:
John Allen Smith 888 Luck st., NY
regexLength:
^(p{Upper}(p{Lower}+s?)){2,3}w+ .*, w+ d{5}(-d{4})?$
This was an example of how to match an address using regular expressions in Java.
