Regular expressions are powerful but tricky, and even those long used to using them can make mistakes.


The following should not be used as regular expressions:

* ``++.++`` - matches any single character. Used in ``++replaceAll++``, it matches _everything_
* ``++|++`` - normally used as an option delimiter. Used stand-alone, it matches the space between characters
* ``++File.separator++`` - matches the platform-specific file path delimiter. On Windows, this will be taken as an escape character

== Noncompliant Code Example

----
String str = "/File|Name.txt";

String clean = str.replaceAll(".",""); // Noncompliant; probably meant to remove only dot chars, but returns an empty string
String clean2 = str.replaceAll("|","_"); // Noncompliant; yields _/_F_i_l_e_|_N_a_m_e_._t_x_t_
String clean3 = str.replaceAll(File.separator,""); // Noncompliant; exception on Windows

String clean4 = str.replaceFirst(".",""); // Noncompliant;
String clean5 = str.replaceFirst("|","_"); // Noncompliant; 
String clean6 = str.replaceFirst(File.separator,""); // Noncompliant;
----

ifdef::env-github,rspecator-view[]
'''
== Comments And Links
(visible only on this page)

include::comments-and-links.adoc[]
endif::env-github,rspecator-view[]
