Java dot does not match “any character”

The dot should match any character So why doesn't this regular expression work?

String url = "http://wikipedia.org";
System.out.println(url.replace("htt.://",""));

Output: http://wikipedia.com org

Solution

String. Replace() compiles literal regular expressions You should use string Replaceall() or string replaceFirst()：

String url = "http://wikipedia.org";
System.out.println(url.replaceFirst("htt.://",""));

This is a method from Java source code replace()：

/**
 * Replaces each substring of this string that matches the literal target
 * sequence with the specified literal replacement sequence. The
 * replacement proceeds from the beginning of the string to the end,for
 * example,replacing "aa" with "b" in the string "aaa" will result in
 * "ba" rather than "ab".
 *
 * @param  target The sequence of char values to be replaced
 * @param  replacement The replacement sequence of char values
 * @return  The resulting string
 * @throws NullPointerException if <code>target</code> or
 *         <code>replacement</code> is <code>null</code>.
 * @since 1.5
 */
public String replace(CharSequence target,CharSequence replacement) {
    return Pattern.compile(target.toString(),Pattern.LITERAL).matcher(
            this).replaceAll(Matcher.quoteReplacement(replacement.toString()));
}