For quick one-off tests, you can use the static call:

bool foundMatch = Regex.IsMatch(subjectString, @"\Aregex pattern\Z");

To use the same regex repeatedly, construct a Regex object:

Regex regexObj = new Regex(@"\Aregex pattern\Z");
bool foundMatch = regexObj.IsMatch(subjectString);

For quick one-off tests, you can use the static call:

Dim FoundMatch = Regex.IsMatch(SubjectString, "\Aregex pattern\Z")

To use the same regex repeatedly, construct a Regex object:

Dim RegexObj As New Regex("\Aregex pattern\Z")
Dim FoundMatch = RegexObj.IsMatch(SubjectString)

The IsMatch() call should have SubjectString as the only parameter, and the call should be made on the RegexObj instance rather than the Regex class:

Dim FoundMatch = RegexObj.IsMatch(SubjectString)

If you want to test just one string, you can use the static call:

boolean foundMatch = subjectString.matches("regex pattern");

If you want to use the same regex on multiple strings, compile your regex and create a matcher:

Pattern regex = Pattern.compile("regex pattern");
Matcher regexMatcher = regex.matcher(subjectString);
boolean foundMatch = regexMatcher.matches(subjectString);

if (/^regex pattern$/.test(subject)) {
    // Successful match
} else {
    // Match attempt failed
}

if (preg_match('/\Aregex pattern\Z/', $subject)) {
    # Successful match
} else {
    # Match attempt failed
}

if ($subject =~ m/\Aregex pattern\Z/) {
    # Successful match
} else {
    # Match attempt failed
}

For quick one-off tests, you can use the global function:

if re.match(r"regex pattern\Z", subject):
    # Successful match
else:
    # Match attempt failed

To use the same regex repeatedly, use a compiled object:

reobj = re.compile(r"regex pattern\Z")
if reobj.match(subject):
    # Successful match
else:
    # Match attempt failed

if subject =~ /\Aregex pattern\Z/
    # Successful match
else
    # Match attempt failed
end

The Regex class in the .NET Framework does not have a function for testing whether a regex matches a string entirely. The solution is to add the start-of-string anchor ‹\A› to the start of your regular expression, and the end-of-string anchor ‹\Z› to the end of your regular expression. This way, the regular expression can only match a string either in its entirety or not at all. If your regular expression uses alternation, as in ‹one|two|three›, make sure to group the alternation before adding the anchors: ‹\A(?:one|two|three)\Z›.

With your regular expression amended to match whole strings, you can use the same IsMatch() method as described in the previous recipe.

Java has three methods called matches(). They all check whether a regex can match a string entirely. These methods are a quick way to do input validation, without having to enclose your regex with start-of-string and end-of-string anchors.

The String class has a matches() method that takes a regular expression as the only parameter. It returns true or false to indicate whether the regex can match the whole string. The Pattern class has a static matches() method, which takes two strings: the first is the regular expression, and the second is the subject string. Actually, you can pass any CharSequence as the subject string to Pattern.matches(). That’s the only reason for using Pattern.matches() instead of String.matches().

Both String.matches() and Pattern.matches() recompile the regular expression each time by calling Pattern.compile("regex").matcher(subjectString).matches(). Because the regex is recompiled each time, you should use these calls only when you want to use the regex only once (e.g., to validate one field on an input form) or when efficiency is not an issue. These methods don’t provide a way to specify matching options outside of the regular expression. A PatternSyntaxException is thrown if your regular expression has a syntax error.

If you want to use the same regex to test many strings efficiently, you should compile your regex and create and reuse a Matcher, as explained in Recipe 3.3. Then call matches() on your Matcher instance. This function does not take any parameters, because you’ve already specified the subject string when creating or resetting the matcher.

JavaScript does not have a function for testing whether a regex matches a string entirely. The solution is to add ‹^› to the start of your regular expression, and ‹$› to the end of your regular expression. Make sure that you do not set the /m flag for your regular expression. Only without /m do the caret and dollar match only at the start and end of the subject string. When you set /m, they also match at line breaks in the middle of the string.

With the anchors added to your regular expression, you can use the same regexp.test() method described in the previous recipe.

PHP does not have a function for testing whether a regex matches a string entirely. The solution is to add the start-of-string anchor ‹\A› to the start of your regular expression, and the end-of-string anchor ‹\Z› to the end of your regular expression. This way, the regular expression can only match a string either in its entirety or not at all. If your regular expression uses alternation, as in ‹one|two|three›, make sure to group the alternation before adding the anchors: ‹\A(?:one|two|three)\Z›.

With your regular expression amended to match whole strings, you can use the same preg_match() function as described in the previous recipe.

Perl has only one pattern-matching operator, which is satisfied with partial matches. If you want to check whether your regex matches the whole subject string, add the start-of-string anchor ‹\A› to the start of your regular expression, and the end-of-string anchor ‹\Z› to the end of your regular expression. This way, the regular expression can only match a string either in its entirety or not at all. If your regular expression uses alternation, as in ‹one|two|three›, make sure to group the alternation before adding the anchors: ‹\A(?:one|two|three)\Z›.

With your regular expression amended to match whole strings, use it as described in the previous recipe.

The match() function is very similar to the search() function described in the previous recipe. The key difference is that match() evaluates the regular expression only at the very beginning of the subject string. If the regex does not match at the start of the string, match() returns None right away. The search() function, however, will keep trying the regex at each successive position in the string until it either finds a match or reaches the end of the subject string.

The match() function does not require the regular expression to match the whole string. A partial match is accepted, as long as it begins at the start of the string. If you want to check whether your regex can match the whole string, append the end-of-string anchor ‹\Z› to your regular expression.

Ruby’s Regexp class does not have a function for testing whether a regex matches a string entirely. The solution is to add the start-of-string anchor ‹\A› to the start of your regular expression, and the end-of-string anchor ‹\Z› to the end of your regular expression. This way, the regular expression can only match a string either in its entirety or not at all. If your regular expression uses alternation, as in ‹one|two|three›, make sure to group the alternation before adding the anchors: ‹\A(?:one|two|three)\Z›.

With your regular expression amended to match whole strings, you can use the same =~ operator as described in the previous recipe.