string.matches(".*") returns false
java, regex
Solution
By default, the `.` does not match line breaks. So my guess is that your `content` contains a line break.
Also note that `matches` will match the entire string, not just a part of it: it does not do what `contains` does!
Some examples:
String s = "foo\nbar";
System.out.println(s.matches(".*")); // false
System.out.println(s.matches("foo")); // false
System.out.println(s.matches("foo\nbar")); // true
System.out.println(s.matches("(?s).*")); // true
The `(?s)` in the last example will cause the `.` to match line breaks as well. So `(?s).*` will match any string.
Problem
In my program, I have a string (obtained from an external library) which doesn't match any regular expression. ``` String content = // extract text from PDF assertTrue(content.matches(".*")); // fails assertTrue(content.contains("S P E C I A L")); // passes assertTrue(content.matches("S P E C I A L")); // fails ``` Any idea what might be wrong? When I print `content` to stdout, it looks ok. Here is the code for extracting text from the PDF (I am using iText 5.0.1): ``` PdfReader reader = new PdfReader(source); PdfTextExtractor extractor = new PdfTextExtractor(reader, new SimpleTextExtractingPdfContentRenderListener()); return extractor.getTextFromPage(1); ```