Password check using regex in Java

Question

My application has a feature to check password. I need to get this scenario:

password length 10 ~ 32 .

It has to be a combination of either:

• character and numbers
• characters and special characters
• numbers and special characters

Current code in application:

private boolean isSpecialMixedText(String password)
{
    String number = "[0-9]";
    String english = "[a-zA-Z]";
    String special = "[!@#\\$%^&*()~`\\-=_+\\[\\]{}|:\\\";',\\./<>?£¥\\\\]";

    Pattern numberPattern = Pattern.compile(number);
    Matcher numberMatcher = numberPattern.matcher(password); 

    Pattern englishPattern = Pattern.compile(english);
    Matcher englishMatcher = englishPattern.matcher(password);

    Pattern specialPattern = Pattern.compile(special);
    Matcher specialMatcher = specialPattern.matcher(password);
    return numberMatcher.find() && englishMatcher.find() || specialMatcher.find();
}

Please help me get the combination working

Answer 1

Actually, the regexes look fine. The problem is in this statement:

return numberMatcher.find() && englishMatcher.find() || 
       specialMatcher.find();

It actually needs to be something like this:

boolean n = numberMatcher.find();
boolean e = englishMatcher.find();
boolean s = specialMatcher.find();
return (n && e) || (n && s) || (e && s);

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And I agree with @adelphus' comment. Your rules for deciding what passwords are acceptable are very English-language-centric.