Pattern compile(String) method in Java with Examples

Last Updated : 03 Apr, 2023

The compile(String) method of the Pattern class in Java is used to create a pattern from the regular expression passed as parameter to method. Whenever you need to match a text against a regular expression pattern more than one time, create a Pattern instance using the Pattern.compile() method.
Syntax:

public static Pattern compile(String regex)

Parameters: This method accepts one single parameter regex which represents the given regular expression compiled into a pattern.
Return Value: This method returns the pattern compiled from the regex passed to the method as a parameter.
Exception: This method throws following exception:

PatternSyntaxException: This exception is thrown if the expression's syntax is invalid.

Below programs illustrate the compile(String) method:
Program 1:

Java

// Java program to demonstrate
// Pattern.compile() method

import java.util.regex.*;

public class GFG {
    public static void main(String[] args)
    {
        // create a REGEX String
        String REGEX = ".*www.*";

        // create the string
        // in which you want to search
        String actualString
            = "www.geeksforgeeks.org";

        // compile the regex to create pattern
        // using compile() method
        Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile(REGEX);

        // get a matcher object from pattern
        Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(actualString);

        // check whether Regex string is
        // found in actualString or not
        boolean matches = matcher.matches();

        System.out.println("actualString "
                           + "contains REGEX = "
                           + matches);
    }
}

Output:

actualString contains REGEX = true

Program 2:

Java

// Java program to demonstrate
// Pattern.compile method

import java.util.regex.*;

public class GFG {
    public static void main(String[] args)
    {
        // create a REGEX String
        String REGEX = "brave";

        // create the string
        // in which you want to search
        String actualString
            = "Cat is cute";

        // compile the regex to create pattern
        // using compile() method
        Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile(REGEX);

        // check whether Regex string is
        // found in actualString or not
        boolean matches = pattern
                              .matcher(actualString)
                              .matches();

        System.out.println("actualString "
                           + "contains REGEX = "
                           + matches);
    }
}