find

Common
JVM
JS
Native
1.0
fun find(
    input: CharSequence,
    startIndex: Int = 0
): MatchResult?

(Common source) (JVM source) (JS source) (Native source)

Returns the first match of a regular expression in the input, beginning at the specified startIndex.



fun main(args: Array<String>) {
//sampleStart
val inputString = "to be or not to be"
val regex = "to \\w{2}".toRegex()
// If there is matching string, then find method returns non-null MatchResult
val match = regex.find(inputString)!!
println(match.value) // to be
println(match.range) // 0..4

val nextMatch = match.next()!!
println(nextMatch.range) // 13..17

val regex2 = "this".toRegex()
// If there is no matching string, then find method returns null
println(regex2.find(inputString)) // null

val regex3 = regex
// to be or not to be
//              ^^^^^
// Because the search starts from the index 2, it finds the last "to be".
println(regex3.find(inputString, 2)!!.range) // 13..17
//sampleEnd
}

Parameters

startIndex - An index to start search with, by default 0. Must be not less than zero and not greater than input.length()

Exceptions

IndexOutOfBoundsException - if startIndex is less than zero or greater than the length of the input char sequence.

Return An instance of MatchResult if match was found or null otherwise.