Using regular expressions to validate a numeric range
To be clear: When a simple if statement will suffice
if(num < -2055 || num > 2055) {
throw new IllegalArgumentException("num (" + num + ") must be between -2055 and 2055");
}
using regular expressions for validating numeric ranges is not recommended.
In addition, since regular expressions analyze strings, numbers must first be translated to a string before they can be tested. An exception is when the number happens to already be a string, such as when getting user input from the console.
(To ensure the string is a number to begin with, you could use org.apache.commons.lang3.math.NumberUtils#isNumber(s)
)
Despite this, figuring out how to validate number ranges with regular expressions is interesting and instructive.
(The links in this answer come from the Stack Overflow Regular Expressions FAQ.)
A one number range
Rule: A number must be exactly 15
.
The simplest range there is. A regex to match this is
\b15\b
Word boundaries are necessary to avoid matching the 15
inside of 8215242
.
A two number range
The rule: The number must be between 15
and 16
. Here are three possible regexes:
\b(15|16)\b
\b1(5|6)\b
\b1[5-6]\b
(The groups are required for the “or”-ing, but they could be non-capturing: \b(?:15|16)\b
)
A number range “mirrored” around zero
The rule: The number must be between -12
and 12
.
Here is a regex for 0
through 12
, positive-only:
\b(\d|1[0-2])\b
Free-spaced:
\b( //The beginning of a word (or number), followed by either
\d // Any digit 0 through 9
| //Or
1[0-2] // A 1 followed by any digit between 0 and 2.
)\b //The end of a word
Making this work for both negative and positive is as simple as adding an optional dash at the start:
-?\b(\d|1[0-2])\b
(This assumes no inappropriate characters precede the dash.)
To forbid negative numbers, a negative lookbehind is necessary:
(?<!-)\b(\d|1[0-2])\b
Leaving the lookbehind out would cause the 11
in -11
to match. (The first example in this post should have this added.)
Note: \d
versus [0-9]
In order to be compatible with all regex flavors, all \d
-s should be changed to [0-9]
. For example, .NET considers non ASCII numbers, such as those in different languages, as legal values for \d
. Except for in the last example, for brevity, it’s left as \d
.
(With thanks to @TimPietzcker)
Three digits, with all but the first digit equal to zero
Rule: Must be between 0
and 400
.
A possible regex:
(?<!-)\b([1-3]?\d{1,2}|400)\b
Free spaced:
(?<!-) //Something not preceded by a dash
\b( //Word-start, followed by either
[1-3]? // No digit, or the digit 1, 2, or 3
\d{1,2} // Followed by one or two digits (between 0 and 9)
| //Or
400 // The number 400
)\b //Word-end
Another possibility that should never be used:
\b(0|1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|9|10|11|12|13|14|15|16|17|18|19|20|21|22|23|24|25|26|27|28|29|30|31|32|33|34|35|36|37|38|39|40|41|42|43|44|45|46|47|48|49|50|51|52|53|54|55|56|57|58|59|60|61|62|63|64|65|66|67|68|69|70|71|72|73|74|75|76|77|78|79|80|81|82|83|84|85|86|87|88|89|90|91|92|93|94|95|96|97|98|99|100|101|102|103|104|105|106|107|108|109|110|111|112|113|114|115|116|117|118|119|120|121|122|123|124|125|126|127|128|129|130|131|132|133|134|135|136|137|138|139|140|141|142|143|144|145|146|147|148|149|150|151|152|153|154|155|156|157|158|159|160|161|162|163|164|165|166|167|168|169|170|171|172|173|174|175|176|177|178|179|180|181|182|183|184|185|186|187|188|189|190|191|192|193|194|195|196|197|198|199|200|201|202|203|204|205|206|207|208|209|210|211|212|213|214|215|216|217|218|219|220|221|222|223|224|225|226|227|228|229|230|231|232|233|234|235|236|237|238|239|240|241|242|243|244|245|246|247|248|249|250|251|252|253|254|255|256|257|258|259|260|261|262|263|264|265|266|267|268|269|270|271|272|273|274|275|276|277|278|279|280|281|282|283|284|285|286|287|288|289|290|291|292|293|294|295|296|297|298|299|300|301|302|303|304|305|306|307|308|309|310|311|312|313|314|315|316|317|318|319|320|321|322|323|324|325|326|327|328|329|330|331|332|333|334|335|336|337|338|339|340|341|342|343|344|345|346|347|348|349|350|351|352|353|354|355|356|357|358|359|360|361|362|363|364|365|366|367|368|369|370|371|372|373|374|375|376|377|378|379|380|381|382|383|384|385|386|387|388|389|390|391|392|393|394|395|396|397|398|399|400)\b
Final example: Four digits, mirrored around zero, that does not end with zeros.
Rule: Must be between -2055
and 2055
This is from a question on stackoverflow.
Regex:
(-?\b(?:20(?:5[0-5]|[0-4][0-9])|1[0-9]{3}|[1-9][0-9]{0,2}|(?<!-)0+))\b
Debuggex Demo
Free-spaced:
( //Capture group for the entire number
-?\b //Optional dash, followed by a word (number) boundary
(?:20 //Followed by "20", which is followed by one of
(?:5[0-5] //50 through 55
| //or
[0-4][0-9]) //00 through 49
| //or
1[0-9]{3} //a one followed by any three digits
| //or
[1-9][0-9]{0,2} //1-9 followed by 0 through 2 of any digit
| //or
(?<!-)0+ //one-or-more zeros *not* preceded by a dash
) //end "or" non-capture group
)\b //End number capture group, followed by a word-bound
(With thanks to PlasmaPower and Casimir et Hippolyte for the debugging assistance.)
Final note
Depending on what you are capturing, it is likely that all sub-groups should be made into non-capture groups. For example, this:
(-?\b(?:20(?:5[0-5]|[0-4][0-9])|1?[0-9]{1,3})\b)
Instead of this:
-?\b(20(5[0-5]|[0-4][0-9])|1?[0-9]{1,3})\b
Example Java implementation
import java.util.Scanner;
import java.util.regex.Matcher;
import java.util.regex.Pattern;
import org.apache.commons.lang.math.NumberUtils;
/**
<P>Confirm a user-input number is a valid number by reading a string an testing it is numeric before converting it to an it--this loops until a valid number is provided.</P>
<P>{@code java UserInputNumInRangeWRegex}</P>
**/
public class UserInputNumInRangeWRegex {
public static final void main(String[] ignored) {
int num = -1;
boolean isNum = false;
int iRangeMax = 2055;
//"": Dummy string, to reuse matcher
Matcher mtchrNumNegThrPos = Pattern.compile("(-?\\b(?:20(?:5[0-5]|[0-4][0-9])|1[0-9]{3}|[1-9][0-9]{0,2}|(?<!-)0+))\\b").matcher("");
do {
System.out.print("Enter a number between -" + iRangeMax + " and " + iRangeMax + ": ");
String strInput = (new Scanner(System.in)).next();
if(!NumberUtils.isNumber(strInput)) {
System.out.println("Not a number. Try again.");
} else if(!mtchrNumNegThrPos.reset(strInput).matches()) {
System.out.println("Not in range. Try again.");
} else {
//Safe to convert
num = Integer.parseInt(strInput);
isNum = true;
}
} while(!isNum);
System.out.println("Number: " + num);
}
}
Output
[C:\java_code\]java UserInputNumInRangeWRegex
Enter a number between -2055 and 2055: tuhet
Not a number. Try again.
Enter a number between -2055 and 2055: 283837483
Not in range. Try again.
Enter a number between -2055 and 2055: -200000
Not in range. Try again.
Enter a number between -2055 and 2055: -300
Number: -300
Original answer to this stackoverflow question
This is a serious answer that fits your specifications. It is similar to @PlasmaPower’s answer.
(-?\b(?:20(?:5[0-5]|[0-4][0-9])|1[0-9]{3}|[1-9][0-9]{0,2}|(?<!-)0+))\b
Debuggex Demo