Get the first letter of each word in a string using regex

Question

I'm trying to get the first letter of each word in a string using regex, here is what I have tried:

public class Test
{
    public static void main(String[] args)
    {
        String name = "First Middle Last";
        for(String s : name.split("(?<=[\\S])[\\S]+")) System.out.println(s);
    }
}

The output is as follows:

F
 M
 L

How can I fix the regex to get the correct output?

Answer 1

Edit Took some suggestions in the comments, but kept the \S because \w is only alpha-numeric and might break unexpectedly on any other symbols.

Fixing the regex and still using split:

name.split("(?<=[\\S])[\\S]*\\s*")

Answer 2

Why not simply:

public static void main(String[] args)
{
    String name = "First Middle Last";
    for(String s : name.split("\\s+")) System.out.println(s.charAt(0));
}   

Answer 3

(Disclaimer: I have no experience with Java, so if it handles regexes in ways that render this unhelpful, I apologize.)

If you mean getting rid of the spaces preceding the M and L, try adding optional whitespace at the end

(?<=[\\S])[\\S]+\\s*

However, this may add an extra space in the case of single-letter words. This may fix that:

(?<=[\\S])[\\S]*\\s*