Greedy behavior

You can specify reluctant behavior by adding the ? quantifier to the pattern.


// Use the ? quantifier. 
import java.util.regex.Matcher;
import java.util.regex.Pattern;

public class Main {
  public static void main(String args[]) {
    // Use reluctant matching behavior.
    Pattern pat = Pattern.compile("e.+?d");
    Matcher mat = pat.matcher("extend etablet-ipad");
    while (mat.find())
      System.out.println("Match: " + mat.group());
  }
}