Difference between matches() and find() in Java Regex

Question

I am trying to understand the difference between matches() and find().

According to the Javadoc, (from what I understand), matches() will search the ent

Answer 1

matches() will only return true if the full string is matched. find() will try to find the next occurrence within the substring that matches the regex. Note the emphasis on "the next". That means, the result of calling find() multiple times might not be the same. In addition, by using find() you can call start() to return the position the substring was matched.

final Matcher subMatcher = Pattern.compile("\\d+").matcher("skrf35kesruytfkwu4ty7sdfs");
System.out.println("Found: " + subMatcher.matches());
System.out.println("Found: " + subMatcher.find() + " - position " + subMatcher.start());
System.out.println("Found: " + subMatcher.find() + " - position " + subMatcher.start());
System.out.println("Found: " + subMatcher.find() + " - position " + subMatcher.start());
System.out.println("Found: " + subMatcher.find());
System.out.println("Found: " + subMatcher.find());
System.out.println("Matched: " + subMatcher.matches());

System.out.println("-----------");
final Matcher fullMatcher = Pattern.compile("^\\w+$").matcher("skrf35kesruytfkwu4ty7sdfs");
System.out.println("Found: " + fullMatcher.find() + " - position " + fullMatcher.start());
System.out.println("Found: " + fullMatcher.find());
System.out.println("Found: " + fullMatcher.find());
System.out.println("Matched: " + fullMatcher.matches());
System.out.println("Matched: " + fullMatcher.matches());
System.out.println("Matched: " + fullMatcher.matches());
System.out.println("Matched: " + fullMatcher.matches());

Will output:

Found: false
Found: true - position 4
Found: true - position 17
Found: true - position 20
Found: false
Found: false
Matched: false
-----------
Found: true - position 0
Found: false
Found: false
Matched: true
Matched: true
Matched: true
Matched: true

So, be careful when calling find() multiple times if the Matcher object was not reset, even when the regex is surrounded with ^ and $ to match the full string.