Java – Regular Expressions – Finding any non digit byte in a multiple byte

Question

Hello,
I’m new to JAVA and Regular Expressions; I’m trying to write a regular expression that will find any records that contain a non digit byte in a multiple byte field.
I thought the following was the correct expression but it is only finding records that contain “all” non digit bytes.
\D{1,}
\D = Non Digit
{1,} = at least 1 or more
Below is my sample data. I would like the regular expression to find all of the records that are not all numeric. However when I use the regular expression \D{1,} it is only finding the 2 records that all bytes are non digits. (i.e. “ “ and “A “)
“ 111229”
“2 111229”
“20091229”
“200912c9”
“201#1229”
“20101229”
“20110229”
“20111*29”
“20111029”
“20111229”
“20B11229”
“A “
“A0111229”
Please note I have also tried \D{1,}+ and \D{1,}? And they also do not return my desired results
Any assistance someone can provide would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

You don't show the code you are using but I surmise you are using String.matches() which requires that the whole target must match the regular expression not just part of it. Instead you should create a Pattern and then a Matcher and use the Matcher.find() method. Check the Javadoc for Pattern and Matcher and look at the Java regex tutorial - http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/essential/regex/ .
P.S. You can re-use the Pattern object - you don't have to create it every time you need one.
P.P.S. Java regular expressions work with characters not bytes and characters are not not not bytes.