negating words with Java regular expressions

All, is there a way to negate words using regular expressions as
implemented by Java? I know that one can negate the characters in a
character class using the caret ([^a-z]), but I would like to build
expressions of the form:


Match ";" and not "5;".


Though one can match strings positively (as in match against string
"abc"), there does not appear to be a simple way to indicate negative
matches (do not match "abcd").


Thank you.


Raj

Return to the comp.compilers page.
Search the comp.compilers archives again.