Get some data from a string

Question

I've a string with a lot of ##.*##.*##.*## codes into the string.
Example of a string:
My name is ##Claus##Jul##Larsen## and my dog is named as ##Fido##Happy##Dog##. The dog is 2 years old and come from ##United Kingdom##Europe##World##
I want to get the three codes into an array. I've tried with org.apache.regexp.* without lucky :-(
I want to get these codes and put them into an array.
Please help me..... thanx

Answer 1

Using jregex library:
import jregex.*;
Matcher m=new Pattern("##(.*?)##(.*?)##(.*?)##").matcher(theString); //note '?'s after '*'s
while(ms.find()){
System.out.println(m.group(1)+","+m.group(2)+","+m.group(3));
Using java.util.regex:
import java.util.regex.*;
Matcher m=Pattern.compile("##(.*?)##(.*?)##(.*?)##").matcher(theString);
//follows the same as above
Conclusion:
Your pattern "##.*##.*##.*##" is incorrect.
You must apply "reluctant matching", i.e. insert '?'s after '*'s, to avoid the entire string being eat by the first occurence of ".*".
And, use groups(parens) to retrieve the parts you are interested in.
Regards