Java.util.regex.patternsyntaxexception

I have modified the BluetoothChat code to receive serial data from a micro-controller to my android phone. When I run the following code snippet it gives java.util.regex.PatternSy

Solution 1:

matches() uses regular expressions (regex) for matching the input and * is a regex metacharacter, meaning zero or more of the previous token. Since there's no previous token, it's a syntax error.

If you want to match * literally, escape it with backslash:

readMessage.matches("\\*")

or use some of the string-matching functions such as equals() that don't use a regular expression.

Solution 2:

Here is your problem :

if(readMessage.matches("*")

If you want to match everything, then use ".*.

Also, like laalto says in his answer. If you want to match everything, you have to escape * either by using Pattern.quote() or by simply using two slashes "\\*".