java - How to extract a "registration" URL from a mail content -

i successful in reading content of gmail-email using "javamail" , able store in string. want specific registration url content (string). how can this, string contains plenty of tags , href want extract url provided in hyper link on word " click here" exist in below mentioned statement

"please <a class="h5" href="https://newstaging.mobilous.com/en/user-register/******" target="_blank">click here</a> complete registration". 

on hyper link "click here" url

href="https://newstaging.mobilous.com/en/user-register/******" target="_blank"

i have tried using following code

package email;  import java.util.arraylist; import java.util.properties; import java.util.regex.matcher; import java.util.regex.pattern;  import javax.mail.folder; import javax.mail.message; import javax.mail.messagingexception; import javax.mail.nosuchproviderexception; import javax.mail.session; import javax.mail.store;  public class emailaccess {      public static void check(string host, string storetype, string user,              string password)            {              try {               //create properties field              properties properties = new properties();               properties.put("mail.imap.host",host);              properties.put("mail.imap.port", "993");              properties.put("mail.imap.starttls.enable", "true");              properties.setproperty("mail.imap.socketfactory.class","javax.net.ssl.sslsocketfactory");                properties.setproperty("mail.imap.socketfactory.fallback", "false");                properties.setproperty("mail.imap.socketfactory.port",string.valueof(993));              session emailsession = session.getdefaultinstance(properties);               //create pop3 store object , connect pop server              store store = emailsession.getstore("imap");               store.connect(host, user, password);               //create folder object , open              folder emailfolder = store.getfolder("inbox");              emailfolder.open(folder.read_only);               // retrieve messages folder in array , print              message[] messages = emailfolder.getmessages();              system.out.println("messages.length---" + messages.length);                 int n=messages.length;                 (int = 0; i<n; i++) {                 message message = messages[i];                 arraylist<string> links = new arraylist<string>();                 if(message.getsubject().contains("thank signing appexe")){                 string desc=message.getcontent().tostring();                // system.out.println(desc);               pattern linkpattern = pattern.compile(" <a\\b[^>]*href=\"[^>]*>(.*?)</a>",  pattern.case_insensitive|pattern.dotall);                matcher pagematcher = linkpattern.matcher(desc);                 while(pagematcher.find()){                    links.add(pagematcher.group());                }                  }else{                 system.out.println("email:"+ + " not wanted email");                 }                 for(string temp:links){                 if(temp.contains("user-register")){                     system.out.println(temp);                 }                 }                  /*system.out.println("---------------------------------");                 system.out.println("email number " + (i + 1));                 system.out.println("subject: " + message.getsubject());                 system.out.println("from: " + message.getfrom()[0]);                 system.out.println("text: " + message.getcontent().tostring());*/               }              //close store , folder objects              emailfolder.close(false);              store.close();               } catch (nosuchproviderexception e) {                 e.printstacktrace();              } catch (messagingexception e) {                 e.printstacktrace();              } catch (exception e) {                 e.printstacktrace();              }           }       public static void main(string[] args) {         // todo auto-generated method stub          string host = "imap.gmail.com";          string mailstoretype = "imap";          string username = "rameshakur@gmail.com";          string password = "*****";           check(host, mailstoretype, username, password);       }  } 

on executing got out put

< class="h5" href="https://newstaging.mobilous.com/en/user-register/******" target="_blank">

how can extract href value i.e. https://newstaging.mobilous.com/en/user-register/******

please suggest, thanks.

you're close. you're using group(), you've got couple issues. here's code should work, replacing bit of you've got:

pattern linkpattern = pattern.compile(" <a\\b[^>]*href=\"([^\"]*)[^>]*>(.*?)</a>",  pattern.case_insensitive|pattern.dotall); matcher pagematcher = linkpattern.matcher(desc); while(pagematcher.find()){     links.add(pagematcher.group(1)); }  

all did change pattern explicitly looks end-quote of href attribute, wrapped portion of pattern string you're looking in parentheses.

i added argument pagemather.group() method, needs one.

tell truth, use pattern instead (along .group(1) change):

pattern linkpattern = pattern.compile("href=\"([^\"]*)",  pattern.case_insensitive|pattern.dotall);