Regex & java.util.Scanner

Question

I am trying to make a simple txt parser using regular expressions but the problem has
appeared.
The program's code is too long so I have stated only the part of the code implementing
the method data_types() which doesn't work properly, it reads only two types (String) and (Boolean). If someone could help me I would be very gratefull.Why method doesn't read the rest of data types in my data_xml.xml file?
here is the code >
class SimpleScann{
       enum PARSE{
          TABLE_NAME("(\\w*)"),COLUMN_NAME("(\\w*\\Q(\\E)"),DATA_TYPE("(\\Q(\\E\\w*\\Q)\\E)");
          private String $pattern;
          PARSE(String pattern){
               $pattern=pattern;
          public String PATTERN(){
               return $pattern;
     static void data_types() throws Exception{     
          File parse_file= new File("data_type.txt");
          Scanner     scann_input = new Scanner(parse_file);     
          int flag= Pattern.CASE_INSENSITIVE;
          Pattern pattern=Pattern.compile(PARSE.DATA_TYPE.PATTERN(),flag);
          Matcher matcher=null;
          while(scann_input.hasNextLine()){
               matcher=pattern.matcher(scann_input.nextLine());
               if(matcher.find()){
                    System.out.printf("%s\n",matcher.group());
     public static void main(String args[])
          try{
               data_types();
          }catch(Exception e){
               e.printStackTrace();
and here is the data_type.txt<table          > Table radi
ako su zatvoreni tagovi     <>
<column>
     Ime(String), Prezime(String), JMBG(Integer) ,
     Enabled(Boolean)
<\column>
best regards,
Nikola

Answer 1

The reason you're only matching two items is because you're reading the file one line at a time and applying the regex once per line. As Tim said, you can fix that by using while instead of if, but the real problem is much deeper: you're trying to write a scanner in the sense of a lexical analyzer, and that isn't what java.util.Scanner is for. I strongly recommend you start over, this time using Pattern and Matcher directly, not Scanner. If you happen to have a copy of MRE 3ed, there's an example of what you're trying to do on page 400. (Unfortunately, Friedl has just moved back to Japan, and hasn't had time to update the book's web site, or I could point you to the code online.) I don't have time to go into this right now, but you should pay particular attention to the find(int) method and the \G anchor.