What do ^. * and.*$ mean in Regular Expressions?
In Regular Expressions (regex), ^, *, and $ are special characters that have specific meanings.
In regular expressions:
- ^ asserts the start of a string.
- . * Matches any number of any characters (except for newline).
- $ asserts the end of a string. So, ^. *$ matches an entire string, regardless of its contents.
Example: hello$ matches the string “hello” only if it’s at the end of the string.Combining these special characters:
– ^hello$ matches the exact string “hello” (start and end of the string).
– a*$ matches zero or more “a” character at the end of the string.
– ^a* matches zero or more “a” character at the start of the string