I can't find the right regular expression

[romina]

Hello, I want a given string to match a certain pattern and I am using the following function

Code:

public boolean matches(String regex) from java.lang.String

The constraints the strings have to satisfy are the following

• At least 2 letter a-zA-z
• Zero or more times an apostrophe (')
• Zero or more times a space

for example James o'Hara is valid string.

The problem is I can't find the right pattern/regular expression.

I tried this: string.matches([a-zA-Z]{2,}[ ']*) but the example didn't work.
Can anyone help me? I am using eclipse and Java5.0
Thanks

[barney]

The regex I used was

Code:

[a-zA-Z]{2,}[a-zA-Z ']*

It seemed to work:
Ouch this totally 'sux0rz - false (numbers)
Ouch this totally 'sux.rz - false (improper character)
Ouch this totally 'suxorz - true
a - false (not enough beginning letters)
a' - false (not enough beginning letters)
a ' - false (not enough beginning letters)
a b' - false (not enough beginning letters)
a'b - false (not enough beginning letters)
ab' - true
ab ' - true

The reason that you were having problems is because you weren't allowing for letters after a space or after an apostrophe. The regex string you created assumes that there is no input other than a space or an apostrophe after a space or an apostrophe.
Greetings.