How do I use the IsAlphabetic binary property in a Java regex match?

Question

I\'m using this pattern to check if a string starts with at least 2 alphabetic characters in front a colon:

string.matches(\"^\\\\p{IsAlphabetic}{2,}:\")
         


        

Answer 1

Works and returns true using java 1.8.

String s = "äö:";
System.out.println(s.matches("^\\p{IsAlphanumeric}{2,}:"));

Note that the forms available in Java 1.7 - Alpha, IsAlpha - do not necessarily include characters not in US-ASCII . This returns false:

String s = "äö:";
System.out.println(s.matches("^\\p{IsAlpha}{2,}:"));

But note that this works in 1.7 and returns true:

String s = "äö:";
Pattern pat = Pattern.compile( "^\\p{Alpha}{2,}:",
                     Pattern.UNICODE_CHARACTER_CLASS );
Matcher mat = pat.matcher( s );
System.out.println(mat.matches());