Java Scanner.skip Method with Examples

Last updated: April 19, 2024

Written by: Achraf Taitai

Reviewed by: Grzegorz Piwowarek

Java IO

Java Scanner

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1. Overview

java.util.Scanner has many methods that we can use to validate inputs. One of these is the skip() method.

In this tutorial, we’ll learn what the skip() method is for and how to use it.

**2. Scanner.skip() Method**

The skip() method belongs to the Java Scanner class. It is used to skip inputs that match a specified pattern passed in the method parameter, ignoring delimiters.

2.1. Syntax

The skip() method has two overloaded method signatures:

skip(Pattern pattern) – takes as a parameter the pattern that the Scanner should skip
skip(String pattern) – takes as a parameter a String specifying the pattern to skip

2.2. Returns

skip() returns a Scanner object that satisfies the pattern specified in the method argument. It can also throw two types of exceptions: IllegalStateException if the scanner is closed, and NoSuchElementException if no match is found for the specified pattern.

Note that it’s possible to skip something without risking a NoSuchElementException by using a pattern that cannot match anything – for example, skip(“[ \t]*”).

3. Examples

As we mentioned earlier, the skip method has two overloaded forms. First, let’s see how to use the skip method with a Pattern:

String str = "Java scanner skip tutorial"; 
Scanner sc = new Scanner(str); 
sc.skip(Pattern.compile(".ava"));

Here, we’ve used the skip(Pattern) method to skip text that meets the “.ava” pattern

Likewise, the skip(String) method will skip text that meets the given pattern constructed from the given String. In our example, we skip the string “Java”:

String str = "Java scanner skip tutorial";
Scanner sc = new Scanner(str); 
sc.skip("Java");

In short, the result of both methods is the same using either the pattern or the string.

4. Conclusion

In this short article, we’ve checked how to work with the skip() method of the java.util.Scanner class using either a String or Pattern parameter.

The code backing this article is available on GitHub. Once you're logged in as a Baeldung Pro Member, start learning and coding on the project.