java.util.regex.MatchResult.start() Method

Description

The java.time.MatchResult.start() method returns the start index of the match.

Declaration

Following is the declaration for java.time.MatchResult.start() method.

int start()

Return Value

The index of the first character matched.

Exceptions

• IllegalStateException − If no match has yet been attempted, or if the previous match operation failed.

Example

The following example shows the usage of java.time.MatchResult.start() method.

package com.tutorialspoint;

import java.util.regex.MatchResult;
import java.util.regex.Matcher;
import java.util.regex.Pattern;

public class MatchResultDemo {
   private static final String REGEX = "(.*)(\\d+)(.*)";
   private static final String INPUT = "This is a sample Text, 1234, with numbers in between.";

   public static void main(String[] args) {
      // create a pattern
      Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile(REGEX);
      
      // get a matcher object
      Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(INPUT); 

      if(matcher.find()) {
         //get the MatchResult Object 
         MatchResult result = matcher.toMatchResult();

         //Prints the start index of the match.
         System.out.println("First Capturing Group - Match String start(): "+result.start());
      }
   }
}

Let us compile and run the above program, this will produce the following result −

First Capturing Group - Match String start(): 0