starting to sort out like/matches. Matches is the java regex related one. Like is the SQL related one. But the spring .net 'like' doesn't seem to be the same as the SQL doc I found for like...

git-svn-id: https://src.springframework.org/svn/spring-framework/trunk@78 50f2f4bb-b051-0410-bef5-90022cba6387

org.springframework.expression/readme.txt

@@ -23,4 +23,6 @@ Syntax
   So 'l'.charAt(0) was required - wonder if we can build in a converter for a single length string to char?
   Can't do that as equals take Object and so we don't know to do a cast in order to pass a char into equals
   We certainly cannot do a cast (unless casts are added to the syntax).  See MethodInvocationTest.testStringClass()
-  
+- MATCHES is now the thing that takes a java regex.  What does 'like' do? right now it is the SQL LIKE that supports
+  wildcards % and _.  It has a poor implementation but I need to know whether to keep it in the language before
+  fixing that.

org.springframework.expression/src/main/java/org/springframework/expression/spel/SpelMessages.java

@@ -106,7 +106,9 @@ public enum SpelMessages {
 			Kind.ERROR, 1063, "A problem occurred whilst attempting to set the property ''{0}'': ''{1}''"), NOT_AN_INTEGER(
 			Kind.ERROR, 1064, "The value ''{0}'' cannot be parsed as an int"), NOT_A_LONG(Kind.ERROR, 1065,
 			"The value ''{0}'' cannot be parsed as a long"), PARSE_PROBLEM(Kind.ERROR, 1066,
-			"Error occurred during expression parse: {0}"), ;
+			"Error occurred during expression parse: {0}"), INVALID_FIRST_OPERAND_FOR_MATCHES_OPERATOR(Kind.ERROR,
+			1067, "First operand to matches operator must be a string.  ''{0}'' is not"), INVALID_SECOND_OPERAND_FOR_MATCHES_OPERATOR(
+			Kind.ERROR, 1068, "Second operand to matches operator must be a string. ''{0}'' is not");
 
 	private Kind kind;
 	private int code;

org.springframework.expression/src/main/java/org/springframework/expression/spel/ast/OperatorLike.java

@@ -21,13 +21,14 @@ import java.util.regex.PatternSyntaxException;
 
 import org.antlr.runtime.Token;
 import org.springframework.expression.EvaluationException;
+import org.springframework.expression.spel.ExpressionState;
 import org.springframework.expression.spel.SpelException;
 import org.springframework.expression.spel.SpelMessages;
-import org.springframework.expression.spel.ExpressionState;
 
 /**
- * Implements the like operator. The expected operands for like are a string and a pattern (JDK regex). The operator
- * will return true if the string matches the regex.
+ * Implements the like operator. The like operator behaves the same as the SQL LIKE operator. The first operand is
+ * compared against the expression supplied as the second operand. This expression supports two wildcards: % meaning any
+ * string of any length, and _ meaning any single character.
  * 
  * @author Andy Clement
  */
@@ -43,10 +44,10 @@ public class OperatorLike extends Operator {
 	}
 
 	@Override
-	public Object getValue(ExpressionState state) throws EvaluationException {
+	public Boolean getValue(ExpressionState state) throws EvaluationException {
 		SpelNode leftOp = getLeftOperand();
 		SpelNode rightOp = getRightOperand();
-		Object left = leftOp.getValue(state);
+		Object left = leftOp.getValue(state, String.class);
 		Object right = getRightOperand().getValue(state);
 		try {
 			if (!(left instanceof String)) {
@@ -57,12 +58,16 @@ public class OperatorLike extends Operator {
 				throw new SpelException(rightOp.getCharPositionInLine(),
 						SpelMessages.INVALID_SECOND_OPERAND_FOR_LIKE_OPERATOR, right);
 			}
-			Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile((String) right);
+			// Translate that pattern to a java regex
+			// not really the best option, what if the right operand already had regex related chars in it?
+			String likePattern = (String) right;
+			likePattern = likePattern.replace('_', '.');
+			likePattern = likePattern.replaceAll("%", ".*");
+			Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile(likePattern);
 			Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher((String) left);
 			return matcher.matches();
 		} catch (PatternSyntaxException pse) {
 			throw new SpelException(rightOp.getCharPositionInLine(), pse, SpelMessages.INVALID_PATTERN, right);
 		}
 	}
-
 }

org.springframework.expression/src/main/java/org/springframework/expression/spel/ast/OperatorMatches.java

@@ -58,11 +58,11 @@ public class OperatorMatches extends Operator {
 		try {
 			if (!(left instanceof String)) {
 				throw new SpelException(leftOp.getCharPositionInLine(),
-						SpelMessages.INVALID_FIRST_OPERAND_FOR_LIKE_OPERATOR, left);
+						SpelMessages.INVALID_FIRST_OPERAND_FOR_MATCHES_OPERATOR, left);
 			}
 			if (!(right instanceof String)) {
 				throw new SpelException(rightOp.getCharPositionInLine(),
-						SpelMessages.INVALID_SECOND_OPERAND_FOR_LIKE_OPERATOR, right);
+						SpelMessages.INVALID_SECOND_OPERAND_FOR_MATCHES_OPERATOR, right);
 			}
 			Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile((String) right);
 			Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher((String) left);

org.springframework.expression/src/test/java/org/springframework/expression/spel/EvaluationTests.java

@@ -58,21 +58,25 @@ public class EvaluationTests extends ExpressionTestCase {
 	}
 
 	public void testRelOperatorsLike01() {
-		evaluate("'Abc' like '[A-Z]b.*'", "true", Boolean.class);
-	} // not the same as CSharp thing which matched '[A-Z]b*'
+		evaluate("'Abc' like 'A%_'", "true", Boolean.class);
+	}
 
 	public void testRelOperatorsLike02() {
 		evaluate("'Abc' like '..'", "false", Boolean.class);
-	} // was '?'
+	}
 
 	public void testRelOperatorsLike03() {
-		evaluateAndCheckError("7 like '.'", SpelMessages.INVALID_FIRST_OPERAND_FOR_LIKE_OPERATOR);
+		evaluateAndCheckError("null like '.'", SpelMessages.INVALID_FIRST_OPERAND_FOR_LIKE_OPERATOR);
 	}
 
 	public void testRelOperatorsLike04() {
 		evaluateAndCheckError("'abc' like 2.0", SpelMessages.INVALID_SECOND_OPERAND_FOR_LIKE_OPERATOR);
 	}
 
+	public void testRelOperatorsLike05() {
+		evaluate("27 like '__'", "true", Boolean.class); // conversion int>string
+	}
+
 	public void testRelOperatorsBetween01() {
 		evaluate("1 between {1, 5}", "true", Boolean.class);
 	}
@@ -122,11 +126,11 @@ public class EvaluationTests extends ExpressionTestCase {
 	}
 
 	public void testRelOperatorsMatches03() {
-		evaluateAndCheckError("null matches '^.*$'", SpelMessages.INVALID_FIRST_OPERAND_FOR_LIKE_OPERATOR, 0, null);
+		evaluateAndCheckError("null matches '^.*$'", SpelMessages.INVALID_FIRST_OPERAND_FOR_MATCHES_OPERATOR, 0, null);
 	}
 
 	public void testRelOperatorsMatches04() {
-		evaluateAndCheckError("'abc' matches null", SpelMessages.INVALID_SECOND_OPERAND_FOR_LIKE_OPERATOR, 14, null);
+		evaluateAndCheckError("'abc' matches null", SpelMessages.INVALID_SECOND_OPERAND_FOR_MATCHES_OPERATOR, 14, null);
 	}
 
 	public void testRelOperatorsMatches05() {