1 /*
   2  * Copyright (c) 2000, 2006, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
   3  * DO NOT ALTER OR REMOVE COPYRIGHT NOTICES OR THIS FILE HEADER.
   4  *
   5  * This code is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
   6  * under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 only, as
   7  * published by the Free Software Foundation.  Oracle designates this
   8  * particular file as subject to the "Classpath" exception as provided
   9  * by Oracle in the LICENSE file that accompanied this code.
  10  *
  11  * This code is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
  12  * ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
  13  * FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU General Public License
  14  * version 2 for more details (a copy is included in the LICENSE file that
  15  * accompanied this code).
  16  *
  17  * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License version
  18  * 2 along with this work; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation,
  19  * Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA.
  20  *
  21  * Please contact Oracle, 500 Oracle Parkway, Redwood Shores, CA 94065 USA
  22  * or visit www.oracle.com if you need additional information or have any
  23  * questions.
  24  */
  25 
  26 /**
  27  * Classes for matching character sequences against patterns specified
  28  * by regular expressions.
  29  *
  30  * <p> An instance of the {@link java.util.regex.Pattern} class
  31  * represents a regular expression that is specified in string form in
  32  * a syntax similar to that used by Perl.
  33  *
  34  * <p> Instances of the {@link java.util.regex.Matcher} class are used
  35  * to match character sequences against a given pattern.  Input is
  36  * provided to matchers via the {@link java.lang.CharSequence}
  37  * interface in order to support matching against characters from a
  38  * wide variety of input sources. </p>
  39  *
  40  * <p> Unless otherwise noted, passing a <tt>null</tt> argument to a
  41  * method in any class or interface in this package will cause a
  42  * {@link java.lang.NullPointerException NullPointerException} to be
  43  * thrown.
  44  *
  45  * <h2>Related Documentation</h2>
  46  *
  47  * <p> An excellent tutorial and overview of regular expressions is <a
  48  * href="http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/regex/"><i>Mastering Regular
  49  * Expressions</i>, Jeffrey E. F. Friedl, O'Reilly and Associates,
  50  * 1997.</a> </p>
  51  *
  52  * @since 1.4
  53  * @author Mike McCloskey
  54  * @author Mark Reinhold
  55  */
  56 package java.util.regex;