RegEx: How do I use ^ and &?

Question

I have the following code in my unit test:
     String regex = "^([-]{78})&";
     Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile(regex, Pattern.MULTILINE);
     Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(contents);
     assertTrue(matcher.find());
     assertEquals(0, matcher.start());And I am trying to find matches in something like:
CBC Merged Infile Credit Summary   09/13/2005     ID: 200125615513800
Repositories: TU-J                                Loan #: J-IN-02
Prepared For: O.T.T.T.II                          Requestor: cbc
------------------------------------------------------------------------------To me, the regex should match the first line and the test should succeed, but it doesn't. If I take ^ and & out of the pattern, the test succeeds. Also, the simple pattern "------------------------------------------------------------------------------" (78 dashes) succeeds, but, again, ^ and & cause it to fail. What am I missing?
Thanks,
Eric

Answer 1

& is not end of input, $ is.
Holy schnike! I'm such an idiot! In my own defense, the two look pretty similar, don't they? I mean, if I kind of squint with one eye, like this, and....