Using regex to match any character except =

Question

I am trying to write a String validation to match any character (regular, digit and special) except =.

Here is what I have written -

    String patternString = "[[^=][\\w\\s\\W]]*";     Pattern p = Pattern.compile(patternString);     Matcher m = p.matcher(str);      if(m.matches())         System.out.println("matches");     else         System.out.println("does not"); 

But, it matches the input string "2009-09/09 12:23:12.5=" with the pattern.

How can I exclude = (or any other character, for that matter) from the pattern string?

Answer 1

If the only prohibited character is the equals sign, something like [^=]* should work.

[^...] is a negated character class; it matches a single character which is any character except one from the list between the square brackets. * repeats the expression zero or more times.