How to search for a Java string in Eclipse?

Question

I need to search for instances of a character sequence in a Java string using Eclipse. Is there an easy way or regex to do this?

Example: Search for Eggs should match

String str = "Eggs and toast."

and not match

Eggs e = new Eggs()

Answer 1

• Under search menu (press ^H)
• Go to File Search tab
• check Regular expression radio button
• Enter text ".*?Eggs[^"]*" in Containing Text field on top
• Click on Search button

Answer 2

Would something like this work for you?

\".*Eggs.*\"

Answer 3

In general this is very hard because what you want to search for is not "regular" in the sense of "regular expression".

One of the answers you've had suggests:

\".*Eggs.*\"

which is pretty good, but will still match, for example,

System.out.println("There are " + new Eggs().count() + " eggs");

In general, there is not going to be a regular expression which does exactly what you want.